


On The Inside

by HannahMareeCarmelina



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: A touch of Sterek, Explicit Language, Explicit Medical Procedures, Explicit Sexual Content, Heavy Angst, I won't spoil it but you've been warned, M/M, Mating Bites, Mating Bond, Mpreg, Protective Theo, Separation Anxiety, Set after 6B, Slow Burn, Stressed Liam, Teen Wolf, Thiam, m/m - Freeform, mature themes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-06
Updated: 2018-03-30
Packaged: 2019-01-30 04:21:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 28
Words: 311,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12646005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HannahMareeCarmelina/pseuds/HannahMareeCarmelina
Summary: Just a Thiam fanfic I've started.Set after 6B, following the development of Liam and Theo’s bond as the threat of the hunters lingers in Beacon Hills.Abandoned by his parents after finding out their son was a werewolf, Liam faces the stress of starting senior year and struggling to support himself alone. Theo lingers nearby as something inside him starts to soften for Liam, soon becoming a silent shoulder for him to lean upon as the turmoil inside the young wolf’s chest swells to dangerous levels.After spotting a suspicious couple spying on Liam from the high school parking lot one afternoon, Theo finds himself unable to keep away from him. They grow closer and their undeniable feelings for each other start to strengthen when his protective instincts over Liam get the better of him, the safety of the troubled beta soon becoming the main priority in his life that neither of them ever expected.





	1. PROLOGUE

 

_“Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Li-aaaam! Happy birthday to you!”_

The extravagant chorus was sung at a deliberate yell, so loud that the voices of the young McCall pack could be heard from the other side of the building. It caught the attention of staff, patrons and even passers-by out on the esplanade, as was absolutely, relentlessly intended if the complacent grin on their faces was any indication.

They could even be heard from across the street – where a couple stood hidden in the darkness of the night, watching. Listening.

_“Hip hip! Hooray! Hip hip! Hooray!”_

A pair of chocolate eyes smiled behind the binoculars as they closed back in upon the beta of interest. Liam’s skin was beautifully flushed, embarrassment rising in redness up his throat and in his cheeks at the overwhelming dose of attention that his friends were drawing to their table.  
The hunter’s wife gave a short giggle from beside him and he lowered the binoculars to glance at her. The sight of her glee was more than he could ever ask for. It was all he’d ever wanted and he felt happiness rise in his chest.

“Isn’t he beautiful?” His wife sighed ecstatically, leaning into the arm that he wrapped around her shoulders.

Her husband returned the smile and gave a nod, turning back to watch as the blue-eyed young man blew at his candles. Cheers, whoops and screams erupted inside the store, almost drowning out the response that left the huntsman’s lips.

“He’s perfect.”

A squeeze of arms around his torso signified the magnitude of Edie’s delight, and he lifted the binoculars once more. The beta’s face was obscured, half by the tendrils of smoke that rose from his birthday candles and half from the dark head of hair belonging to Scott McCall. He felt impatience rise up his throat but swallowed, waiting while people milled around the table and fussed about at the birthday boy.

A gentle, cool breeze rustled the newlyweds’ clothes while they watched and waited, almost drawing out appreciative sighs as it relieved them from the stifling July heat. At least the summer was almost over.

“I can’t believe they’re giving him pizza for his birthday.” Edie murmured into her husband’s side.

“They’re teenagers.” He shrugged above her, still watching through the lenses. “Pizza is ‘life,’ I think is how they say it.”

A displeased noise was hummed beside him.  
“That kind of eating will have to stop. He needs a nutritious diet.”

_Oh, yes. Yes, he does._

The smile of happiness upon Mark’s lips shifted to one of pure, unadulterated excitement as it dawned on him fiercer than it had before.

Liam was seventeen, at last. His mind was mature enough and his body was broader, taller and stronger than it had been last year. The beta was in his absolute prime and euphoria burned in the hunter’s gut at the thought.

_Finally._

The commotion around Liam inside the pizzeria ceased, and the brunette was finally visible once more. The cake he was scooping onto a spoon was dark and rich, smothered in icing. The content smile on his face was a relief to see, especially after their concern for his mental wellbeing following all that had happened over the past few months.

Losing his humanity, losing friends and fights as quickly as they’d come, losing his girlfriend – and then his own parents left him behind after finding out about the wolf he’d become. It took a hard toll on him; it was easy to see. But if he was smiling, he was happy. He was sound and he was stable.

And they needed him stable.

A smile stretched onto the couple’s faces the longer they watched the beta. All the pieces had fallen into perfect place, as beautifully as was possible. Mark lowered the binoculars and looked to his wife, the smirk almost permanent on his face.  
Edie nodded up at him.

“He’s ready. It’s time.”


	2. CHAPTER ONE

Liam’s POV.

 

“Are you actually any good at this, or am I just mind-blowingly talented?”

I spared a second away from Call of Duty to turn my head and shoot a glare at the brunette beside me. My frown faltered at the sight of the smirk that tugged at the corner of Theo’s lips.

_Cocky bastard._

“Only thing you have a talent for is pissing me off.” I muttered through an indignant pout. “I know you fucked with the controls.”

A scoff of disbelief sounded from beside me and, in my peripheral vision, I saw his head turn.

I took Theo’s moment of exasperation to rise from cover and shoot him dead on the screen. A satisfied smirk spread across my lips and I turned to him, eyebrows raised in challenge. _You were saying?_

He took a moment to glare at the screen before turning back to me, hazel eyes sceptical.

“How would I have fucked with the controls?” He argued, eyebrow quirked. “You’ve been with me since we started-”

“No, I went to get ice cream while you set up.” I corrected him, resuming the game before us and running for cover. “You tampered with it.”

It was quiet for a long moment and I assumed I was correct in my assumption. That was before a foot shot across the mattress and struck hard at my ankle.

I retreated with a cry, scowling over at Theo before striking back with a strong kick of my own. He dodged and I narrowly missed his kneecap.  

“You’re just too ashamed to admit that I’m better than you.” He nagged on a breath, fingers smacking at the controller while his soldier shot at me.

The stupid smirk was back on his face; I didn’t even have to look to know it was there.

“Yeah, at killing people.” I muttered before I could stop myself, and Theo’s form stiffened beside me.

I internally kicked myself at the low blow, remorse immediately flooding into my veins and unsettling my stomach with dread.

I knew better than to joke about murder with him, especially after all the conflict he’d been through. Sure he was usually the most arrogant, smug bastard in the world, whom I used to be certain felt absolutely nothing but contempt and bloodlust – but he’d somehow changed.

He wasn’t the homicidal Chimera who’d tried to convince me to murder my own alpha, who’d controlled Corey, Hayden, Tracy and Josh and plotted against our pack, who’d manipulated everyone around him in order to gain power. He wasn’t the ruthless killer he’d once been.

He was now the Theo who’d been to Hell and back. He was the Theo who had helped us fight the Ghost Riders, helped us defeat them. He’d worked with the pack to keep people safe, to keep _werewolves_ safe. He was the Theo who’d started to care enough that he took away a dying enemy’s pain instead of increasing it by tenfold. He was the Theo who had saved my life, more times than I could count. He’d saved my life, fought by my side and anchored me when my anger spiked.

He wasn’t the Dread Doctors’ Theo anymore.  
  
I wasn’t sure _whose_ Theo he was, but he was a better Theo. A Theo I even liked spending time with.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered into the sudden silence between us, my chest pounding with nervous heartbeats. I was sure Theo could hear it. “I didn’t mean- ”

“No.” He cut me off with a shake of his head, refusing to look anywhere but at the TV screen. “It’s true. I’m very good at killing people.”

“But that isn’t who you are.” I argued back immediately, firmly. “You’re…”

“Good? Different? A changed man?” He spat the words like acid from his tongue. “If you think for one second that I’m a good person, you’re a fucking _idiot._ ”

His words cut deeper than I wanted to admit. I told myself I deserved it after the unfiltered comment I’d made before but that didn’t stop the way it burned into my eardrums. His dulcet tones echoed in my mind. His heartbeat was steady, but elevated in his anger. The silence droned on between us and it felt like a time bomb waiting to detonate.

“I wanted to leave the hospital elevator and walk into a firefight on my own just last month.” I remembered, trying to defuse the tension. “I don’t suppose I’m a _genius_ , either.”

Theo shook his head again in the darkness beside me, his eyes shining with the light from the TV. He didn’t look amused, but he definitely wasn’t angry anymore. His scent had shifted and he didn’t smell so distressed.

We sat on the bed, our soldiers immobile on the screen for what felt like hours before Theo finally spoke.

“We make quite the pair.” His voice was its usual monotone. “A murderer and a dumbass.”

I dared to slowly turn to him. He looked back with a gentle smirk, our eyes meeting for a mere second before he turned back to the game. With one snap of his finger on the trigger, he shot my soldier dead. I turned my head just in time to watch the blood spatter across my fraction of the split-screen and I glared.

The smirk was back, in full swing, and I knew we were okay. The bomb was defused and he’d forgiven me for my running mouth. I tried my best not to stare, tried to ignore the gentle flutter in my gut at the sight of his smile – obnoxious as it was – and turned back to the TV screen.

“You’re dead.” I threatened with a determined grin, the air around us suddenly breathable again.

“So are you.” He countered matter-of-factly. I had to make a conscious effort not to glare at him again, the smartass.

The room fell quiet again, save for the renewed smack of energetic fingers upon the Xbox controllers. We settled back into the routine we’d developed over the past few weeks: long intense silences followed by scoffs of triumph or yells of frustration.

Since the last fight with the hunters, we’d sort of grown on each other. Despite the violent history between us, we’d found a way to stomach each other’s company in small doses and Theo was dropping by for gaming nights a couple times a week.

It wasn’t because we were _friends_ – I doubted we’d ever be. I had a feeling this was to check up on me, to try keeping me company since my parents left.

Theo would never admit as much, but I knew.

As the minutes ticked by, I felt my eyelids fall a little lower. I almost groaned at the thought of what would come in the morning: summer would officially be over.

Tomorrow was first day of senior year and to say I wasn’t slightly shitting myself would be a complete lie. The workload was going to increase by googolplex and the subject difficulty – or irritability, I was yet to decide – would be much higher. Stress was imminent.

We wouldn’t have Scott, Lydia or Stiles to go to this time when we needed help, whether it be with school issues or supernatural ones. The three of them had already set off for college. The pack felt separated; it was only Mason, Corey, Malia and me left to protect Beacon Hills, a mere pack of four. We were going to be, more or less, alone – and it scared me more than I liked to admit.  

Since Scott, Lydia and Stiles left, the pack had felt… _emptier._ Less powerful. We’d kept in close contact since the last fight, but everyone agreed that we felt more alone, more vulnerable despite the fact that the hunters were gone.

 _Well,_ all of them except Monroe. She’d left Beacon Hills after Gerard’s death but the threat of her actions lingered, as though on hiatus. As though on a certain promise to return.

Disregarding her, the town seemed to be at peace. For once, there was no danger lurking in the shadows. There were no deaths, no supernatural occurrences and the Sheriff’s Station wasn’t bustling with unnerved deputies trying to solve a mass murder case.

Beacon Hills was _quiet._

But for how long, no one was sure – and one was fucking stupid to expect this peace to last. There would always be another epidemic, another would-be Nogitsune or Anuk-Ite aspirant come to destroy werewolves, or another band of Dread Doctors. Another Deucalion or another Peter Hale. _Another Theo,_ my mind supplied quietly, but I shoved the voice down. Something else always came up, and Beacon Hills was the host.

“Hey.”

A foot nudged mine and I jolted awake, eyes opening to the blue-white glare of my TV screen. I suppressed a yawn and sat up a little straighter.

“Mm, sorry.” I hummed groggily, retrieving my controller from the bed at my waist and marching my soldier behind a building for cover.

Theo glanced at me from the corner of his eye while we shot at each other, but said nothing. His gentle smirk was back and that in itself was enough to indicate his urge to mock me. I was grateful when he didn’t verbalise it.

While we played, I let my mind dwell on him.

He knew I had school tomorrow, he knew I needed to sleep. But maybe it was the fact that we were in such a comfortable routine that he didn’t want it to end. It was normal, it was fun, it was quiet and good-natured. It was everything that neither of us had ever had enough of in our lives.

Theo would’ve had school tomorrow, too, if he’d enrolled. I’d made the mistake in asking him about it before receiving one of his signature glares and a sharp, _“No fucking way.”_  
  
And that had been that.

I wasn’t sure if it was the normalcy of being a school student that repelled him, or the idea of being stuck in a building full of fellow teenagers. Theo didn’t do _people_   – at all. Which was made abundantly clear by his decision to live alone. I mean, he lived in his _truck._ He didn’t have friends or family and he didn’t talk to anyone.

 _Anyone but me_ , I noticed with a slight flutter in my gut.

I tried very hard not to look at him then, my heartrate having skipped.

I wanted to ask why. I wanted to ask him why I was different to everyone else but immediately bit my tongue to halt the words. Theo didn’t _talk_ about things, and I was almost certain he’d land his fist on my face if I tried to push him.

I opted for small talk instead, hoping he didn’t bristle at the fact that I was appearing interested in what he did when he wasn’t hanging around.

“So what are you going to do, now that the threat’s gone and all?” I tried to train my voice into a conversational tone. It sounded louder than was necessary in the quiet between us.

He was still for a moment before he spoke.

“If this is about school again-”

“No, no, it’s not,” I countered swiftly, my cheeks starting to heat at the annoyed spike of Theo’s scent. “I’m just… trying to talk.”

He lifted an eyebrow.  
“Talk?”

_Maybe not my best choice of words._

I made a show of rolling my eyes at him.  
  
“Yeah, talk. Have a _conversation_ , like normal people?”

Theo’s face didn’t shift from its blank slate of concentration as he tapped at his controller.  
  
“You and I aren’t normal people.” He countered in a deadpan.

I huffed at his impossible demeanour, subsequently slouching into the pillows and giving up.

“Fine. We won’t talk.”

And so the silence prevailed. The frustrated grunts, triumphant smiles and incessant tapping of controllers persisted until Theo eventually let out a sigh.

“I don’t know.” He shrugged one shoulder. “Might get a job.”

“So you’re _staying?”_   I tried to hide the sudden, foreign excitement that bubbled up at his words.

He gave another shrug and I turned to look at him.

“Might as well, I don’t have anywhere else to go.” He tried to sound nonchalant but something in his voice was resonating meaning.

I heard what he wasn’t saying: he didn’t have a reason to leave. I entertained the thought that perhaps there was a reason he wanted to stay, something – or someone – to stay _for,_ but couldn’t bring myself to conclude what it could be. I was overthinking it.

“Hunters could come back, too.” He added, as though to underline that he didn’t have any other reason besides eagerness for a good fight.

“I thought you didn’t care about the safety of Beacon Hills.”  
  
It was a risky provocation and I stilled, waiting for his scent to spike again with irritation at my prying.

Theo fell quiet and for a moment I thought I heard his heartbeat quicken. I kept my eyes on the TV screen and waited, jaw sharp, for him to cover it up. To slam me with insults, to punch me in the face – anything. But he didn’t. The words that hung unsaid in the air almost choked me.

_I care about the safety of **you**._

Neither of us moved for what felt like years, the seconds ticking by in slow motion. I felt a little numb by the time Theo shot my soldier.

“I don’t.” Is all he said.

I didn’t push the conversation further, didn’t comment on the definitive elevation of both our heartbeats, nor the shy uneasiness that permeated the air. We just fell back into the monotonous routine of Call of Duty: spawn, hide, shoot, die, repeat. It was simple and that was all that mattered.

Five minutes barely went by when my eyelids fell low again. My mind ticked with the traffic of all the chaos I’d experienced in the past few months, images flashing back and forth before I was gently roused by a sound.

A sigh.  
“You’re no fun when you’re half-asleep. I have literally no competition here.”

My eyes forced open and I stretched to wake myself up.  
  
“You’re no fun when you smell like a trashcan.” I murmured back.

Theo turned to glare at me.  
“I do not smell.”

“Sure you do.” I goaded him further, resisting the lazy smile threatening at the corners of my lips. “It’s what you get when you live outta your truck. Should shower every once in a while.”

The game was paused in front of us and I looked up in time to see Theo stand from the bed. He turned to address me derisively, hands out at his sides.

“Maybe I fucking will.”

I couldn’t help the exhaled laugh that left my throat as he snatched a towel from the cupboard in the hall and stalked down to the bathroom. I knew I should feel remorse for teasing him about being homeless, but I wanted to let myself bask in the triumph of out-bantering him for once.

Apparently I basked too much, because I drifted off to sleep not a minute later.

 

***

 

“ _Liam? Liam…”_

I opened my eyes when the voice called me, soft and feminine and exactly like…  
  
“Hayden?” My mouth fell open.

She stood before me, brown eyes, soft little nose, concerned frown and all. She was _here_.

I approached her quickly, eyes wide as I took her in for the first time in months. I reached out to pull her into my chest, to wrap my arms around her and _keep_ her there because it hurt too fucking much to imagine her leaving again. My heart was twisting in my chest in a mixture of complete happiness and agony. It didn’t know which emotion to choose.

In the few steps I took to get closer, I stopped short. My gut fell in horror and I reached up to wipe the mercury from her upper lip.

“ _No.”_   I breathed, shaking my head and feeling the panic roll over me. “No, no,  _no…”_

Hayden’s legs gave out and I caught onto her as she slumped to the ground. I cradled her in my lap and held onto her face, unable to help as the silver liquid fell from her lashes and glazed over her eyes.

“ _Hayden, no!”_   I cried, wishing she’d blink. I wanted her to blink the silver away and look up at me, tell me it was just a joke-

_Screeeeeeech._

My head whipped up at the sound of tyres screaming, just in time to catch sight of… _no. This can’t be happening._  

I laid Hayden down on the asphalt as quickly as I could, sprinting past the car to the heap of human flesh at the foot of the bumper. My heart broke in two when Brett’s face gazed up at me, red and black a mixture of blood and black ooze on his skin. Lori was draped over him, in tears and gripping at her brother’s chest in desperation.

_No. Not again._

Lori looked up at me. All I could do was stare helplessly, just like before.

“I couldn’t take away his pain!” She cried, the tears bubbling over and spilling before she laid her head down, shivering, and took her last breath.

People in their cars surrounded me, staring and watching. I felt the tears spill over, squeezing my eyes shut and _screaming._ The scream came as a roar, a ferocious howl from my wolf as he whined in pain at the loss.

_They’re dead. They’re dead again and I couldn’t save them._

When my eyes opened, I was in an elevator. It was immobile.

Theo was beside me, hair dishevelled and streaked with sweat, a smile on his face that shone with something pure. He turned and opened the elevator doors to reveal the hospital corridor, dark with midnight blue shadows and swarming with Ghost Riders.

“What are you _doing?!_ ” I cried as he stepped out into the elevator doorway.

He turned, teeth straight and white in the most stunning smile.  
  
“Being the bait.”

_“No!”_

But he turned and ran, and the doors shut before my chest collided with them, my screams echoing in the tiny silver box.

_“Theo, no! NO!”_

And I awoke.  
  
Screaming and thrashing, half-shifted with my claws dug deep into the mattress below me while the people I cared about fell one by one in my subconscious. My eyes burned with the amber glow of my wolf and my teeth had pierced my lip in my screaming. I sat bolt upright and gasped desperately for air, eyes blinking and voice rasping as I came back from the ledge of complete panic I’d been about to fall from.

My heart was erratic in my chest and I put a hand over it, shutting my eyes and breathing deep as my claws and fangs slowly retracted.

_It was a nightmare. Calm down._

When my eyes opened again, I looked around my bedroom. The TV was off, the empty bowls of ice cream gone from my bedside table. The curtains were open, letting in the morning sunlight and Theo was gone.

I sat in bed and just breathed, letting reality catch back up to me.

_The war’s over. Your parents left you and Scott’s gone. You’re starting senior year today and you’re not even sure how you’re going to survive the next twelve months with only a couple-hundred dollars and a house and school to pay for._

I scrubbed at my face and let out a deep sigh. I wasn’t sure which world was worse, the nightmare or _now._ Checking my phone, I had no cynical messages from Theo insulting me for falling asleep on him. Just one from Mason, telling me that he would be by to pick me up at a quarter to eight with a positive attitude and coffee. _Lots_ of coffee.

I stood and moved down the hall to the bathroom, hoping a hot shower would burn away the remnants of shock and tremor from my muscles.

 

School was different.

Walking through the doors behind Corey and Mason, I felt like there were eyes on us. It still felt as it had for weeks, like the students around us were watching and waiting. Waiting for me to shift in a fit of rage, waiting for my eyes to turn amber and my claws to come out.

It even felt like Nolan and his friends were bound to round the corner at any moment, to herd me into a corner and pin me down to beat me until I shifted and revealed my wolf to the entire school.

But upon glancing up at the students surrounding us, I was proven wrong. No one stared. No one whispered, no one acknowledged that we were there. I didn’t hear a single heartbeat shift.

Everything was strangely normal, but _different_ at the same time. Different in the respect that, for once, nothing was wrong. Nothing was out of the ordinary.

For Beacon Hills High, that in itself was concerning.

“Dude.” Mason whispered under his breath, confident that Corey and I could pick up on his words. “No one’s staring. Is this real?”

Corey’s shoulders shrugged as we approached our lockers.  
  
“Don’t speak too soon.”

As if on cue, Nolan _did_ round the corner.

His eyes were a little dark underneath, his posture slightly slouched and his bag appeared too heavy for his left shoulder. He glanced up at us upon nearing his locker and our eyes met for a short moment, but that was all. His head ducked down and his back turned to punch in the code to his lock.

Corey, Mason and I exchanged glances and I shook my head.

“Nope. Definitely not real.”

The boys nodded in agreement and we turned to collect the textbooks for first through to fourth periods. I had to double check my new timetable a few times, sighing at the day’s itinerary. I started with Biology and ended with Health class.

“Guys!”

The three of us lifted our heads at Malia’s call. She approached at a quick pace, long legs covering the distance effortlessly. Her Doc Martens skidded on the floor where she stopped.

“Ready for an _exciting_ first day of senior year?” Mason tried, earning a disgusted shake of Malia’s head.

“ _No.”_   She replied, turning to glance down the hallway behind her. “Have you seen the new guidance counsellor? I’ve heard rumours he looks like a- ”

“Good morning!”

Malia fell silent immediately and we turned to spot the source of the exaggerated greeting. A lanky man in tan slacks with long curls of grey hair stood hunched over Nolan across the hallway. The boy looked like he’d rather curl up inside his locker than be cornered speaking to this man.  

“That’s him.” Malia whispered while we watched the encounter.

The man had to be in his late fifties. He was happy -  _too happy -_ and was standing much too close to Nolan for it to be considered a professional approach. 

“Was _pedophile_ the word you were about to use?” Corey whispered back, eyes wide in discomfort.

None of us needed to answer his question; looking at the man’s body language towards Nolan confirmed it. I suppressed a shudder and gave a shrug.

“It’s better than a genocidal huntress.” I compared, earning noises of concurrence from my friends. “We’ll let Sheriff Stilinski deal with that one, I think.”

After honest nods, the bell rang for first period. Malia and Mason waved their goodbyes while Corey and I made our way to our first class of Senior Biology. We sat together at a lab bench to the left of the classroom, bright morning sunlight streaming in from the window. The room smelled like plastic and propane.

“How have you been?” Corey began in a hushed whisper from beside me while the class awaited the teacher’s arrival.

I knew immediately what he was implying within the question – how have I been after almost losing my life several times in the month just passed and coming home to find my parents gone and the house next to empty?

I gave a dismissive tilt of my head.  
  
“Fine, I guess.” I exhaled in a deep breath. “As good as can be expected, anyway.”

Corey nodded in understanding.  
  
“You know, if you need somewhere to stay-”

“I know.” I cut him off gently. I didn’t want to hear the pity in his voice. “I’m just not sure if I’m ready to leave the house behind yet. It’s the only familiar thing I have left, you know? Everything’s changed.”

“I know what you mean. I just don’t like you being alone, is all.”

I had to stop myself from saying the words that threatened to spill.

_I’ve had Theo._

The pack didn’t know how much time I’d been spending with the Chimera since the war had ended. The opportunity hadn’t really presented itself for me to mention it but the reception of such information wouldn’t be pleasant. Despite how much Theo had helped the pack in regards to the Dread Doctors, the Ghost Riders and now the hunters, none of them trusted him in the slightest.

Corey almost hated him after being subject to his manipulation, Mason almost hated him _because_ he manipulated Corey, and Malia… Malia hated a _lot_ of people. She had been adamant that I put Theo back in the ground after the war was done but fell quiet after he saved my ass the first few times. I doubted any of them really wanted Theo in Beacon Hills.

I was undoubtedly the only one who cared about him, though I’d never admit it.

Before my thoughts could delve any deeper into exactly what I felt for the Chimera, the class quietened and our teacher strode into the lab. He smacked his books down upon the desk and smiled, introducing himself as Mr. Lewis before requesting immediately that we open our textbooks to Chapter Six.

A wave of groans rode through the classroom as students landed on their first topic of study for the semester. I looked to Corey with a grimace upon finding the page we needed. His lip turned up.  

“Yes!” Mr. Lewis beamed from the front of the room with a clap of his hands in eagerness. “This term we’re studying _anatomy!”_

 

_Yep. I’m definitely not making it through this year._


	3. CHAPTER TWO

If you’d asked me one year ago if I was excited to graduate from senior year and get out into the adult world, I’d have screamed a big fucking yes. What teenager _didn’t_ want to escape teachers, homework and classrooms and trade them for a whole wide world of opportunity?

Right now? Not me.

The one thing I wanted more than anything was for senior year to just _disappear._

It’d only been a fortnight since school started and every senior had turned into a ball of stress. The new curriculum was much more demanding. Classes were more intense, homework had basically doubled and assignments had been distributed _already._ I’d barely had any time to wrap my head around my new home life, and now school had added to it _._

How was I meant to find time for a job when I had all of _this_ to worry about? It wasn’t even halfway through September and I was barely sleeping – half thanks to the nightmares, half to the homework. The pack didn’t even have time to talk outside of school.

I’d seriously begun to wonder how in the hell Scott and Stiles had managed to pass comfortably while dealing with the tragedies of Beacon Hills. They sure made it look easy and it had me feeling like an inferior species. But Mason was smart and had always been studious – if even _he_ was struggling, maybe I wasn’t so bad. Maybe we all weren’t.

As the weeks passed by, we’d all noticed one thing: something didn’t feel right.

Since settling back into school, a feeling of unease had been slowly growing in all of us. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary but somehow we just _knew._ We felt it. Our wolves were becoming more restless as though they could sense danger, inbound from miles away. We weren’t sure if it was just our anticipation of a new threat, or the fact that something really was wrong.

For all we knew, it could’ve just been premonition based on past experience. Maybe the peace _would_ hold for longer than a few months. Maybe we were just paranoid, overthinking it. But something inside me knew those were only excuses to shield myself from reality.

Something didn’t feel right.

I had grown used to not being stared at every time I entered a room, but lately I found myself glancing over my shoulder again. I felt that familiar prickling of the hairs on the back of my neck, the sense that someone was watching me. I wasn’t sure if the others felt it, too, but it was upsetting my stomach more every day.

It was hard to distract myself when my friends weren’t around. Living alone had really started to take its toll on my mind and I found myself wishing I had someone there, just to chase away the dreadful feeling of isolation and loneliness. I didn’t trust myself enough to deal with what I felt on my own, not for much longer. Because I was slowly becoming scared, and when I was scared, I was _angry._ And when I was angry I needed…

An _anchor._

My shoulders slumped even further and I lowered my head to the table in the cafeteria as a certain Chimera invaded my thoughts. I hadn’t seen or heard from Theo since that night before school began, and vice versa. I was too stressed as of late to muster the energy required to tolerate Theo’s demanding, mocking presence. I was sure all he’d do was tire me out with the relentless insults and banter.

But despite this, a part of me was disgruntled about his absence. It was like somewhere inside me felt empty, almost _missed him_ , and I didn’t understand why. We didn’t even get along on a regular basis, we nearly detested each other. He annoyed me more than he made me laugh and never did anything but offend and deadpan me at every point.

He was infuriating at best, so why did I feel _better_ when he was around?

_Because he understands._

My heart jittered inside my chest and I wasn’t entirely sure if it had slowed or quickened.

I felt better when I was with Theo because he understood. He didn’t feel _much_ , but he felt anger and fear. He knew what it was like to lose control. He understood more than anyone else I knew and it felt liberating to be around someone who could fathom what I was going through.

He was an arrogant pain in my ass more often than not, but I couldn’t help but admit that Theo’s presence was soothing for me. He was comfortable and he calmed me down. He appreciated peace and quiet just as much as I did and he didn’t ask questions like my friends would. He helped douse the furious, upset fire that raged in my heart at the ruin my life had turned into, and he helped distract me from it. Somehow, he made it all seem like _less._

Maybe it was because Theo was simple.

He was straightforward. He lived the way he wanted and felt only what he _let_ himself feel. If he had a problem, he’d deal with it. He was hard-headed, determined and relentless. Nothing got in his way and nothing discouraged him.  

He’d never seemed much like the ambitious type, but I was sure that he wouldn’t let anything stop him from achieving his objectives. I certainly couldn’t see him stressing over mere homework, if he’d ever had any.

The pack would kill me if I said it aloud, but Theo was a good influence.

 

The school bell shrieked through the cafeteria, signalling the end of recess. The four of us jolted up from our slumped states of exhaustion and subsequently groaned at the idea of enduring the last double period of the day: Health class.

I think I spoke for the entire grade when I said it was the most intolerable core subject, by far. It was basically code for sex ed.

The classes were separated into male and female – which was obviously to reduce the obnoxious, rowdy comments that were sure to be exchanged across the room at the mere mention of sex and anatomy. That didn’t mean we were any less immature about it, but it definitely relieved teachers from having to police horny teenagers who decided to experiment with each other under the desk.

Slinging our backpacks over our shoulders, the four of us slowly filed out of the cafeteria with the rest of the students. The walk to the west wing of the school was a quiet one, save for the exasperated muttering between Corey and Malia concerning the ridiculous load of Trig homework we’d been assigned.

I’d successfully tuned them out, almost lost in my own thoughts when I slowed to a quick stop in the hallway. My head lifted and my eyes widened.

I’d caught a scent. A familiar one – one that caused something hot to spike low in my gut.

It was the perfect mixture of gentle laundry detergent, buttery cinnamon and masculine hair wash. I went dizzy upon inhaling it but in the short moment I’d caught onto it, it was gone again. Had I imagined it?

_I swear if I’m starting to imagine this shit, I’m admitting myself to Eichen House._

I’d smelled _Theo._

Which was preposterous; there was no way it was real. Why would he spend his spare time hanging around the very high school he’d refused to enrol in?

Part of me entertained the thought that maybe he’d been lurking around, possibly to keep an eye on everyone or just to watch me – but I quickly dismissed the idea.

_Get over yourself, Liam._

I was just being ridiculous, paranoid.

“Li?”

I noticed I’d been absent-mindedly staring at the laces of my Chucks, lost in thought about Theo fucking Raeken once more, and tried not to smack myself. 

_I’m losing it._

“Sorry.” I caught back up to my friends, passing by them and trying to lessen the sudden burn in my cheeks. “Thought I’d forgotten something. It’s all right.”

I kept my head down, not daring to catch the confused, suspicious glances from the three teens behind me. Corey, Mason and I parted ways with Malia at the stairwell and ascended to face the dreadful last ninety minutes of our school day. We settled into seats on the middle right wall and waited in a mutual, weary silence for the rest of the students to file in.

As expected, the class was next to unbearable. Cringe-worthy, to put it politely.

The teacher had us starting on the process of impregnation – _impregnation,_ of all things. Half the time they were spieling us on how to avoid it, and now we were meant to be studying how it happened?

Sadly, it wasn’t a joke.

The lights were cut and our teacher had a slideshow on, detailing the stages of genetic merging, embryo implantation and development of the human. Immature comments were muttered aloud at every pause in Mr. Smith’s lecture and alternate, vulgar names were suggested for the body parts displayed in diagrams upon the projector screen.

To make matters worse, I was stuck listening to the soft licks and smacks of Corey and Mason’s lips as they joined and dipped in the dark beside me. The air was ridden with pheromones of arousal and I had a hard time trying not to vomit into the blonde ponytail of the girl in the next row. I was almost certain they were jerking each other off under the table.

Trust me, I _tried_ to tune it all out. I tried to concentrate on what Mr. Smith was saying – something about blastocysts and endometriums – but then the whispered grunts and moans started and I couldn’t handle it.

“ _Guys.”_ I hissed into the darkness beside me. “I’m _right here._ You should be paying attention, you know he’s going to assign homework on this stuff.”

One last wet kiss was shared between my best friends before Corey turned with a sly smile, lips swollen from their attentions.

“We’re gay, Liam.” He noted softly in amusement beside me. “We don’t need heterosexual education.”

My mouth fell open while I tried to find the words to correct him, but I fell short. He wasn’t _wrong_.

“Well…” I exhaled in desperation, glancing around the dim classroom. “Can you at least move to the back? Y’know, so I don’t have to hear or smell you?”

Mason gave a good-natured roll of his eyes before nodding in acquiescence, gathering his and Corey’s unopened textbooks and ducking up the aisle to the back corner without catching the attention of Mr. Smith.

“Thanks.” I whispered into the room, knowing Corey would at least pick up on my gratitude. It was relieving when the pungent smell of arousal lessened and I was finally able to breathe.

It wasn’t that I disapproved of their happiness, it’s just… they were my _best friends._ Listening to them almost copulate under the desk right beside me was almost mentally scarring. I could deal with Nogitsunes, Dread Doctors, Ghost Riders and the like, but listening to my two gay friends get down and dirty was something I couldn’t stomach.

For a moment I tried to put myself in their shoes, to try to understand their motives, but found that it was a grave mistake. And not just because of the bile that rose up my throat. I _imagined_ myself in their position – except it wasn’t Corey and Mason in those chairs to my right.

It was me.

Me and _Theo._

I squeezed my eyes shut and dug the heels of my palms into my brow, cursing under my breath and trying desperately to shove the idea from my mind but it stuck for longer than I willed it to.

_I’m going insane. First I imagine his scent and now I’m imagining… jesus christ._

I couldn’t even focus properly on the rest of our Health lesson. Not without Theo distorting the information from the projector screen and warping it into some form of unwelcome, raunchy concept that turned my cheeks red and increased both my heartrate and my body heat.

I was more than relieved when the final bell rang and I stood immediately to escape the suffocating tension of the classroom. My exhausted slouch from earlier was forgotten as I paced to get as far away from the room as I could, hopefully trapping those taboo thoughts behind with it.

I was glad when no one came running to catch up with me and busied my hands with untangling a pair of earphones, plugging my ears and unwinding to the riffs and screams of Slipknot.

I managed to make it home without incident, only slowing in my footsteps half a dozen times to glance over my shoulder when my wolf senses prickled. But no one was following me; no one came sprinting up the sidewalk to murder me and there were no mysterious parked cars that I somehow couldn’t escape the proximity of. 

I distracted myself with the blare of music in my ears and formulated a set plan for tonight’s homework schedule.

I was slouched in the study chair behind my desk, cookie in-mouth and wishing with all I had that lacrosse was in season when my phone vibrated from the nightstand.

_No, you can’t get distracted. The quicker you get this done, the more time you’ll have to sleep._

I ignored the pestering urge to check my messages and devoured the rest of my snack, pencil tapping upon the page of my Trigonometry textbook and fingers dancing across the calculator to my left.

I’d almost made it through two whole minutes before succumbing to my nagging impulses.

I snatched up the iPhone from my bedside table and felt my chest flutter at the words upon my screen.

_Message: Theo Raeken_

I decided not to notice how quickly I swiped the screen open to view the text.

 _ Theo: _ _Something’s not right in this town._

I felt a sarcastic little smirk pull at my mouth.

 _Liam: __When is anything_ ever _right in this town?_

I got through one more equation before his reply chimed in. Theo’s annoyance basically yelled in my face through the screen.

 _ Theo: _ _Seriously, douche bag. Something doesn’t feel right. I can’t be the only one._

My bottom lip worried for a moment before I replied. _He feels it, too._

 _ Liam: _ _I know what you’re talking about. It’s like something’s coming. The others have felt it too, but I’m the only one who seems concerned. Somehow I don’t think it’s just paranoia._

 _ Theo: _ _I really hate this fucking place. Should really leave while I have the chance._

There was no denying the cold drop in my gut upon reading his words. A part of me knew he could do what he wanted but the other half was clinging to what he’d said last fortnight – that he planned on getting a job and _staying_.

I didn’t want to know what Beacon Hills would be like without the asshole hanging about.

 _ Liam: _ _Why don’t you?_

His response took an entire two minutes.

 _ Theo: _ _Who else is going to save your asses when you bite off more than you can chew?_

 _ Liam: _ _Of course. I should’ve known – you must thrive off of the fact that we need you. You love being the one to say, ‘I told you so.’ Bet it really strokes your ego._

I returned my attention back to the equation pencilled onto my page. I had to suppress a yawn before stuffing another shortbread into my mouth.

 _ Theo: _ _Such a snarky little beta.  
        : What are you doing this afternoon? _

I swallowed upon reading the newest text.

 _ Liam: _ _Homework. Loads of it._

 _ Theo: _ _We should do a movie night. You provide the films, I’ll provide the soda, crisps and popcorn._

Grimacing, I let out a sigh at his message. A large part of me yelled, _yes!_ at the prospect of loafing around watching films with Theo. It almost yearned for the comfort he brought. But the logical part of me prioritised homework and adequate rest. If Theo came over, there was no way I’d get even half of my studying in.

 _ Theo: _ _I’m taking your silence as a yes. I’ll be there in an hour._

I glared at the screen with a huff.

_Persistent ass._

 

I’d just finished the last analysis question on my English Lit homework when a familiar blue truck pulled into the driveway below my bedroom window.

I threaded my fingers through my hair with an exhale and observed the pile of books on the study desk before me. I’d made a significant dent in the paperwork. Only some Biology reading and Health class homework remained. I just hoped Theo would tolerate silence for long enough that I could complete at least one of them.

Upon opening the front door, I was hit with that scent again – so hard that it damn near knocked me over. The laundry detergent and buttery cinnamon was back, filling my nostrils and hitting me harder than I thought it could. This time it was _real_.

The same stroke of heat from before pooled in my gut and my eyes couldn’t decide whether to flutter shut in relief or widen in shock. Instead, I found myself staring. I was frozen and speechless in the doorway, wondering how the hell one fortnight apart could make Theo smell this strong to me.

It wasn’t even a _bad_ smell. I liked it. The strange, fiery monster in my belly liked it. My _wolf_ liked it.

Theo lifted an eyebrow.  
“Liam.”

_He’s talking to you._

_Are you going to say something?_

My heartbeat stuttered like I’d seen a ghost. I was powerless while my eyes traced the contours of Theo’s face: the dark curve of his hairline, locks swept to the left. The expressive, suspicious eyebrows framing undeniably stunning hazel green eyes. The gentle slope of his nose, the diamond chisel of his jawline and the sharp smirking curves of his lips.

My stomach stirred and my wolf purred in a symphony with the strange monster inside me as I realised for the first time that Theo was _beautiful._ All smooth skin, mysterious eyes and brunette features, he was undeniably attractive. He was absolutely gorgeous. And looking right at me.

“What’s up with you?” He asked with a suspicious scowl. “Full moon isn’t for another fortnight.”

_What?_

He noticed the clear confusion that flitted across my face.

“Your eyes.” He nodded down to my hands. “Your claws.”

I glanced down at myself and gaped, palms up as I observed the claws protruding from my nailbeds. Now that I’d been made aware of it, I could feel the amber burning like molten gold in my irises. I took deep breaths, trying frantically to calm the racing of my heart and the burning in my chest.

_Calm the hell down. It’s Theo. Just Theo._

“Sorry,” I muttered at last, voice slightly hoarse. “Feeling a little under the weather.”

The Chimera looked me over with the same suspicious scowl. I almost saw concern before he shook his head and let himself in, arms cradling a grocery bag. I shut the door behind him, finally finding movement in my limbs while he headed for the stairs.

“Have you chosen a movie?” His voice called through the house.

I grimaced to myself as I followed him, re-entering my bedroom to find him already arranging the contents of his shopping on the queen mattress. Crisps and creaming soda called at me and I felt my stomach turn with hunger at the mere sight of them.

“Not yet,” I explained slowly, waiting for him to turn and frown at my lack of enthusiasm for movie night. “I’ve had homework.”

Theo turned to me.

“Homework.” He repeated.

“Yeah, I have homework.” I sneered, eyes narrowed. “Like any normal school student. I have to do it if I want to pass.”

A sigh left the Chimera’s lips and his shoulder brushed past mine on his way out, just on this side of a shove.

“Well you’d better pick something before the popcorn’s ready,” He echoed down the hall. “Or I’ll start without you.”

 

***

“ _Okay. So what do you need? Besides a miracle.”  
“Guns. Lots of guns.” _

I tried tuning out the typing and beeping that followed, the movie blaring from the TV behind me. I frowned down at the worksheet on the desk, trying to remember all the parts Mr. Smith had labelled on his diagram of the uterus but was distracted by both the unwanted memories of that class from earlier, and the sounds from the film Theo was enjoying without me.

“Liam,” He let out a groan of protest. “C’mon, the homework can wait. You’re missing The Matrix.”

I let out a huff and shook my head, resisting the urge to lower my head to the table and sleep my life away.

“I just have this last bit from Health.”

The film was paused.

I heard the shuffle of weight on the bed from behind me but wasn’t quick enough to turn before Theo’s arm slung over my right shoulder. He grasped the worksheet from me and snatched it out of reach, turning to examine it while I protested behind him.

“ _Theo,_ I need that!”

He scoffed down at the sheet of paper.  
  
“The fuck? What the hell is this, _midwifery_ studies?”

I reached past him and snatched the diagram back in embarrassment.  
  
“Like I said, it’s for Health class. It’s a core subject, mandatory for graduation. I _have_ to learn this.”

There was an amused noise from him as I turned my back on him, reassuming my seat at the study table.

“And _that’s_ why I didn’t enrol for senior year.” He muttered in disdain. “What total bullshit.”

I shrugged a shoulder and went back to squinting at the diagram, as though if I concentrated hard enough the answers would appear on the page. A hand braced on the desk beside me and Theo leaned over my shoulder from behind. The heat from his skin surrounded me immediately.

“Is there anything I can _help_ with?”

I let the laugh exhale from my nose.  
  
“Do you know anything about Implantation?”

The short laugh was returned from over my shoulder and I felt Theo’s smile in the air around us.

“I can’t say I do.”

I tilted my head appreciatively in his direction, above me.  
  
“Thanks though. Just give me five more minutes and I’ll be done. Promise.”

Theo was still above me for a short moment before he straightened up and his hand left the desk. His scent followed him back to the bed and I took a slow breath to steady my mind.

I managed to fill in most of the labels on the diagram with confidence and dropped my pen with a breath of finality. I still had twenty questions to answer on the flip side of the worksheet but those could wait until tomorrow. The majority of my homework was done and I felt a weight slide off my shoulders.

Breathing came easier and I flopped onto the mattress beside Theo, squirming to get comfortable before settling and reaching into the bowl of half-cold popcorn at our knees.

“All good?” He asked softly.

I looked to him, quickly studying the glint in his eyes and the meaning to his words. I wasn’t sure whether he was confirming that I was ready for him to press play, or if he was asking if I was actually okay.

I paused for a moment, trying to recall the last time I’d looked at my own reflection. Was it that obvious that I was struggling? I was sure I didn’t look as bad as I felt.

“Yeah.” I responded with a nod, despite not knowing what I was agreeing to. “All good.”

There was a tap to the controller and the film resumed before us. I munched on popcorn for a few minutes before relaxing my muscles and letting myself fall back into the pillows. I gave into the exhaustion that had been tugging at me since school started and let myself unwind, comfortable and sound beside Theo.

I didn’t know my eyes had shut until they opened to a darker room, the end credits rolling on the TV screen before me. I moved to bury my face into the pillow, only to notice my head wasn’t on one.

Theo’s shoulder was hot and comfortable under my cheek, considering he was mostly hard toned muscle. The smell of his skin had intoxicated me, my limbs heavy and head fuzzy until I surfaced from sleep just enough to realise what I was doing.

“Good morning, sunshine.”

I sat up immediately, a red flush creeping up my throat and rising in my cheeks.

_I’d fucking slept on him. What if I drooled?_

Theo’s signature smirk was curled onto his face. His amusement was thick in the air around us and it only made the situation feel ten times worse. I was never going to live this down.

“I’m so sorry, I-”

Theo cut me off with a shake of his head.

“Chill.” He shrugged, his smile now less like a smirk and more like a tiny, genuine grin. His voice was soft, thoughtful. “Thought I’d leave you be. You kinda look like shit.”

I gave a half-hearted roll of my eyes.  
  
“ _Thanks.”_  I breathed before we fell quiet.

Music from the credits played between us while I sat and hoped to god my face wasn’t as red as it felt. I thought the silence was going to remain indefinitely when Theo surprised me by speaking.

“You haven’t been sleeping,” It was a statement. He could see it. “Have you?”

I stilled slightly at his voice, a little surprised that he cared enough to notice. I shook my head softly, refusing to turn to see his face. I was afraid of what I’d find.

“Do you want to talk about it?” 

Then I did turn to look at him, confident my eyes were just as incredulous as I felt. _Is this even Theo?_

But his expression wasn’t one of mockery. It wasn’t even blank. It was just… Theo. He was calm and collected, maybe even slightly empathetic. His eyes watched me, waiting innocently and ready to deal with whatever response I gave.

I wasn’t the kind of guy who talked about things, not really. I’d especially found it difficult in the past when dragged into multiple psychiatrist’s offices, poked and prodded and interrogated about why I was such an angry kid, and why it seemed like a justifiable decision to bash the coach’s car in with a crowbar that one time after being kicked off the lacrosse team. They’d wanted to judge me, to stick a label on me and render me some form of explosive psycho. Any time I’d been asked to talk, that was what happened. I’d been accused and reprimanded, disciplined for feelings things I couldn’t control.

But this wasn’t a psychiatrist. This wasn’t a guidance counsellor or a lawyer, nor a police officer.

This was Theo.

Theo, who understood. Who’d been poked and prodded at, who’d been an angry psycho. Who’d been judged and accused for doing what he’d been built to do – for doing the only thing he knew _how_ to do.  

We were more alike than either of us liked to acknowledge and despite the history of trust issues between us, he felt like the only one I could open up to. He was the only person I felt entirely safe telling how I felt and what was ailing me.

“School’s been shit.” I murmured into the silence, the credits having finished moments ago. “The workload is almost too much. It’s only the first few weeks and everyone’s already stressed to the limit. I’m alone in this house and bills are bound to start coming in, and I have no spare time left to get a job to _pay for it._ And… then there's the dreams.”

Hazel eyes watched me, encouraged me. Soaked in what I was letting out.

“What kind of dreams?”

I swallowed at the unwelcome memories that flashed in my mind.

“I relive the past.” I whispered to the duvet under me. “I watch everyone die, one by one and there’s nothing I can do to save them. I can’t escape the memories. I can’t remember the last time I woke up to my alarm instead of my own screaming.”

It fell silent and although my eyes never left the pattern of my duvet, I felt Theo’s eyes on me.

He didn’t say anything. He didn’t judge me, he didn’t console me – and I found that I wanted neither of those anyway. He just listened, acted as a sponge to soak up the spillage that was busting through from the cracks in my armour. He absorbed some of the pressure and that was all I needed.

It was like he’d known me longer than I’d known myself. He knew how to listen. He somehow knew how to be there for me without smothering me. He knew what I needed and some part of me hoped he even knew how to fix it.

“Do you want me to stick around?”

My head shot up at his words, feeling the ears of my wolf perk up and the beating of my heart skip. His eyes were honest, his face open. He meant it.

“I can take care of myself.” I gave a shrug and he returned it.

“It makes a difference when you don’t feel so alone and isolated.” He picked up the controller and started flicking through Netflix. A soft smile curled onto his lips and it looked good on him. “Besides. I didn’t save your ass all those times to have you die of exhaustion.”

Despite our conversation topic, I couldn’t help but tiredly return the smile.

“I’d like if you stayed.” I found myself admitting with a soft nod.

Theo’s smile grew just a tad wider and he nodded back, tapping the bed beside him with a quick hand. He lowered the controller and laced his fingers behind his head, settling into place as the second Matrix film began.

“Go back to sleep, Liam.”

 

I slept through the night.


	4. CHAPTER THREE

 

_Meeeeeeeeeeeee-_

The frown was on my face before I even opened my eyes. I stirred, half-awake until my brain recognised the horrendous droning noise as my alarm. I flung an arm out to my right, hand searching the bedside table blindly until I found the clock. A sleepy sigh of relief left my chest at the subsequent silence before my eyelids parted.

I was covered in a mere blanket, still dressed in the clothes from yesterday evening and it took me a second to piece it all together. The movie night. The deep and meaningful conversation. 

_Theo stayed._

Inhaling, the spot where I lay on the right side of the bed still faintly smelled like him, which meant he hadn’t left that long ago. I glanced around the room – looking for _what,_ I wasn’t sure. Any sign that he might still be there, whether in the form of a jacket or his phone.

But I was surprised to find that the sign wasn’t even in object form, but rather in the air. The distinct smell of pancakes was wafting through my bedroom doorway from the kitchen downstairs and my brows furrowed slightly in interest. I rolled out from under the blanket and followed the smell downstairs, not exactly sure what I was expecting to see. Nothing really prepared me for the sight of morning Theo.

He stood at the stove, his back to the dining area with a spatula in one hand and his phone in the other. He was freshly showered, shirt off and damp hair raked back from his face, save for a strand or two upon his temple. His back was a broad expanse of pure strength; trapezius, rhomboid and deltoid muscles were defined and swollen on either side of his spine and he stood comfortably to one side, his waist tipped in a way that made me a little dizzy.

He must’ve heard the increased tremor of my heartbeat because he turned to sight me a moment later. His eyes raked over my form briefly before he raised an eyebrow.

“How’d you sleep?”

I nodded in response, approaching the kitchen slowly.

“Well, actually.” My voice was still heavy with drowsiness. “I didn’t dream.”

Theo gave a satisfied nod before turning back to the stove, flipping a pancake with a hiss of heat from the pan.

“Where did you learn to cook?” I asked in surprise, approaching to sit on a stool at the breakfast bar.

He didn’t turn away from his task, merely held up the hand grasping his phone.

“Googled it,” He tilted his head nonchalantly. “Hope they don’t taste too bad.”

I was lost for words, mute while he turned to plate up the pancakes before topping them with butter, syrup, strawberries, blueberries and banana. He popped a plate on the bench before me with a set of cutlery and turned to pour two glasses of orange juice.

He’d certainly made himself at home.

I stared at the shockingly decent meal in front of me, finding that my stomach growled eagerly when tempted by the smell.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked before I could stop myself.

Theo glanced up from cutting into his own pancakes, standing on the opposite side of the bench.

“You need a good breakfast to start off your Friday.” He shrugged, stabbing at a piece of fruit. “Can’t neglect yourself like this.”

“Right.” I shook my head defensively. “Because it’s so easy to remember to feed myself when I have a hundred other things on my mind.”

A sarcastic sneer was sent in my direction from across the counter.

“That’s why _I_ cooked and you didn’t.”

I stared at him for a short moment before shutting my mouth and devouring the breakfast he’d made me – which actually tasted really damn good.

I had a hard time deciphering Theo most times; one day he’d be a complete, total fuckstick and the next he was asking me if I wanted to talk about my problems, staying overnight to keep me company and learning to cook just so I’d go to school with something in my belly.

I knew he definitely didn’t do this for anyone else and was still heavily inclined to ask him _why me_ , but knew asking would only result in a blunt, sarcastic response or two and maybe an insult on my ability to take care of myself. A little voice in my head said to just go with it, so I swallowed down my questions and just _did._

And the Chimera was on my mind for the majority of the day.

Despite being hit straight up with a double lesson of Trig first thing that morning, irritation was at a minimum. It felt like the class went smoother than usual and I was able to focus on the lesson rather than sit and glower at the board because of the indecipherable bullshit no normal teenager could understand.

It was a vast improvement and even the pack noticed I wasn’t as much of a zombie. We’d met briefly at our lockers between classes when Mason looked to me with his eyes narrowed in curiosity.

“You’ve changed, Li.” He tilted his head at me. “You’ve got more energy today, you’re happier.”

I gave an impartial shrug and pouted.  
  
“Yeah, Theo made breakf-” I snapped my mouth shut, but it was too late.

_Oh shit._

All three of my friends turned to stare at me. Mason’s mouth dropped open, eyes disbelieving, although none of us could deny the name that had come from my mouth.

“ _Theo?_ Theo made _breakfast?”_

Malia’s eyebrows danced angrily at me.

“Theo was in your _house?”_ She asked incredulously, her tone heavy with all kinds of disapproval. “Did he _sleep over_ , too?”

I bit my lip and stared. It was meant to be a sarcastic comment, but I couldn’t actually say _no._

Corey and Mason just gawked in shock while Malia did the interrogating.

“Please tell me he didn't sleep in your bed. _”_

My mouth hung open while words failed me. I was in no way prepared for this kind of conversation and had no line of defence in place. My friends stood and waited while I stuttered.

“Well I don’t _know_ ,”

“How do you _not know?_ Did he drug you?”

“No!” It was my turn to scowl. “We were watching movies, I fell asleep!”

“So he comes over regularly, then.” Corey assumed, his expression flat.

I let out a sigh and pinched at the bridge of my nose.  
  
“I was going to tell you guys eventually, but-”

“But _what?_ ”

“But I knew you’d do _this!”_ I gestured wildly to the three of them in general. They had the audacity to seem taken aback. “For some reason you can’t accept Theo and I didn’t tell you because I don’t want to deal with the conflict.”

“You _know_ why we can’t accept that asshole,” Malia stated firmly, her eyes a mixture of betrayal and defiance. “Have you forgotten what he did to Corey? Or what he did to _you?_ He almost had you murder Scott and he’s double crossed us _several_ times. There’s literally a mountain of horrible shit he’s done and I can tell you now that he doesn’t feel remorse for _any_ of it.”

Despite knowing what she said was true, I couldn’t help the anger bubbling up inside me at her words. Sure he’d done all those things but he’d made up for them. He’d spent time in Hell, and whatever happened to him during that time shifted something in him because he came out different. He came out _better._

“He’s different.” Was all I could say, voice low. “He makes things better.”

“Better than your own _friends_ make you feel?”

I looked up at their hurt, indignant faces and couldn’t do anything but shut my eyes and shake my head. I slammed the door to my locker and backed away.

“You don’t understand.”

Turning my back to walk to class, their voices called out behind me but I shut them out. This wasn’t a conversation I could have, not when I felt so close to the brink of an explosive episode from the conflict. It wasn’t something I was even sure I could resolve with just words, either.

I was torn, being tugged in one direction by the pack who’d never let me down but hated Theo, and in the other direction _by_ Theo – who had tried to destroy our pack in the past but was now one of the only things keeping my feet on the ground and my head on my shoulders.

 

I didn’t speak to them for the rest of the day. I stayed quiet, keeping to myself in classes and avoiding eye contact with anyone and everyone. Isolation was almost always the key when it came to my anger, but isolation was all I’d _had_ lately and it started to taste sour.

I dealt with the day on my own, appreciating the simplicity of having no one to answer to. I plugged my ears with music again for the walk home, finding that my old anchor was still just as soothing as it was when I’d first been bitten by Scott.

I felt the familiar tingle of eyes on me as I left through the school doors but brushed it off for once, not in the mood to care. If Corey, Mason and Malia had learned anything about me over the period of our friendship, it was that sometimes I needed them to give me space. Their eyes could follow me, but their bodies could not.

I was halfway home when the feeling tingled inside me again. I did my best to ignore it but couldn’t help to notice that it was significantly stronger this time. I turned to glance at the street behind me, but no one was there.

So I turned my music up louder and focused on counting my footsteps.

One, two, three, four, five, six- _beeeep! Beeeeeeeeeeeeee-_

I looked up with a frown, immediately startled by the sight of a familiar blue truck following slowly at my side on the road. Theo was leaning out the window, face rigid and stern and his mouth was moving. I pulled the earphones from my ears, frowning in confusion.

“Theo? What the hell?”

His patience appeared to be absent.  
  
“Liam, you need to get in. Now.”

I stopped walking.  
“What? Why?”

“I’ll explain when you’re _safe,_ just get in the fucking car!”

_When I’m safe?_

The warning bells went off in my head at his tone and I suddenly understood the nature of his behaviour, nodding and making quick work of rounding the truck to the passenger’s side and climbing in. I’d barely had my seatbelt on before Theo was speeding off.

It was quiet inside the car for a long while, his eyes worrying firmly over the road and checking the mirrors almost obsessively.

“Theo? What’s going on?”

He checked his mirrors another time before answering me.

“I found a couple watching you from their car in the school parking lot.”

I felt the blood in my veins chill. I couldn’t speak for a long moment, unable to breathe while I tried to process the situation. A hundred and one questions surfaced and I struggled to pick one.

“What were you doing at the school in the first place?”

He quickly glanced to me and his jaw ticked, eyes flashing with something very similar to apprehension. I’d asked a question he had no appropriate answer for and I watched while his mind tried to work around it. Apparently his solution was to ignore it outright.

“I think the people were hunters.” He said instead, eyes returning to the alternation of watching the road and checking the mirrors. “They just had that predatory look about them. I didn’t get a great look but the man had dark hair and the woman was blonde.”

That ticked my parents off the list.

“Did you get a look at the car?”

He nodded, chewing on his lip from the inside.

“A silver Mercedes. I didn’t get the license plates, but it was almost brand new. They’ve got money.”

I watched the houses we passed, trying to keep myself calm. So I _was_ being watched - my instincts had been right.

Was I the only one, however? Were these people watching the others, too?

“You need to tell your pack.” Theo basically read my mind.

I grimaced at the mention of the friends I’d been ignoring for the entire afternoon and my scent must’ve changed, because Theo picked up on the shift in my mood.

“What is it?”

“They found out that you and I have been hanging out.” I explained on a sigh, leaning back into the seat with a huff. “We kind of argued and I walked away.”

“Argued?” He repeated, an eyebrow quirked.

I rolled my eyes.  
  
“Don’t act so oblivious. You know they despise you.”

He scoffed lightly, shaking his head while he watched ahead. 

“I don’t care if they despise me.” He stated honestly. “Right now I’m the only one who seems to be looking out for you.”

He wasn’t wrong, but I hadn’t exactly been the easiest friend to maintain over the past few weeks. No one could blame the others for leaving me to my own devices.

“Either way, you need to tell them.” He continued quietly. “They can help keep you safe. Who knows who else these people are watching.”

I nodded in submission but my soft expression turned to a frown when we drove right past the turn off for my street.

I turned to him.

“Theo. Where are we going?”

His eyes narrowed, hands tightening on the steering wheel.

“I’m not taking you back to that house.”

“ _Theo._ ” I almost groaned. “I doubt these people know where I live. Besides, we don’t have anywhere else to go.”

His expression didn’t shift, defiance firm in those hazel green eyes. I tried not to notice the way my stomach squirmed at the thought that he could potentially be protective over me.

“We’ll find somewhere.” He said. “Anywhere is better than there.”

“ _How?”_

He was quiet before answering, as though unsure if he should open up. I waited with even breaths, willing my heart to calm down from its nervous tremor.

“Because when you’re at home, you’re alone.” He finally said in a whisper. His eyes softened and his eyebrows almost worried. “You have no one, and nothing but bad memories.”

“That shouldn’t matter if it’s safe.” I argued.

“It’s not safe for your head. Not for much longer.”

“Why does _that_ matter?”

“Because I want to _protect you!”_

The truck fell quiet, save for the shocked, swift heartbeats from our chests. I was almost positive no one else in the world had ever heard Theo Raeken openly admit that he cared about their safety, and I doubted anyone else ever would. The weight of his words echoed in my head and I felt a little dizzy with disbelief.

As though encouraged by the fact that I didn’t mock him or yell at him, he continued.

“You have no idea what it’s like.” His voice was a forced whisper. “To _feel_ after feeling nothing your entire life.”

He was right. I didn’t.

But I could try to imagine, and I imagined it would feel incredibly overwhelming. Possibly even terrifying. If the pained look on his face told me anything, it was that I wasn’t too far from the truth.

“Then help me to understand.” I encouraged softly while he gripped at the wheel, eyes frantic upon the road.

He merely shook his head, shoulders suddenly collapsing. It made him look defeated, almost sleep-deprived.

“I just can’t leave you there alone.”

The softness of his words had me short of breath. Before I could think to stop them, the words were out of my mouth.

“Stay with me, then.”

He snapped his head around to look at me so quickly – I wasn’t sure whether it was because of the giant spike in my heartbeat or the fact that I’d just asked him to live with me. Something told me it was a bit of both, but I didn’t miss the well-concealed spark of hope that flared behind his eyes for a fraction of a second.

The momentary happiness in his face had me continuing.

“It would be better for you, too.” I found myself shrugging. “There’s a spare room; you could have a proper bed, a TV, a shower, _food._ Somewhere to do laundry.”

In a split second the Theo-Guard was back up, his expression dubious and unsure while he drove. His face seemed uncertain and sceptical, but his relaxed posture gave his true thoughts and desires away. If he was really that opposed to the idea, his body language would’ve been a lot firmer and much more on the defensive.

I thought it was an obvious observation, but realised with a startled blink that maybe I was actually learning how to _read_ him.

He was dead quiet for what must have been at least three whole minutes before he appeared to have made up his mind.

“I’ll pay half the bills.”

My head whipped around.  
  
“Theo, _no-_ ”

“I can’t expect you to just take me in, that’s not how this works.” He said firmly. “I don’t _rely_ on people.”

I huffed a sigh at his hard-headedness - a quality I remember admiring only last night - and continued. 

“That’s fair enough, but how are you going to pay half when you don’t have a job?”

“I found something last week.” He explained casually. “Something simple at a café in town with good hours.” He turned to look me in the eyes for a moment. “I’ll pay half, Liam.”

I stared at the side of his face for a while, heart pounding before, “Okay.”

The atmosphere inside the truck changed very quickly while Theo found a place to turn around. It was almost excited, happy. I felt dumbstruck, but admitted to myself deep down that I was a little jovial about the idea of having Theo sticking around.

I’d probably find that he would drive me up the damn wall in a matter of days, but at least I wouldn’t be stuck in the house on my own. I was getting help with the loneliness and with the bills, and Theo was getting a place to stay, a place to call home.

He turned to me with a smirk, his entire face at least three shades brighter.  
  
“The pack’s going to kill you.”

My smile dropped and I blanched.

_Fuck. The pack._

 

***

 

A pack meeting was arranged the following day. Theo and I met the others at Mason’s house, and to say the air was thick with hostility would be putting it gently.

Theo, myself, Corey and Mason sat in an awkward, dead silence inside Mason’s mother’s living room while we waited for Malia to turn up. The two boyfriends stared. From me, to Theo, and back again.

I could tell what they were thinking: they were still a little mad about our argument from yesterday. I’d walked away from them after defending Theo, and now I’d called a pack meeting and brought him _along._ I knew how it looked.

I knew they would understand once we told them about the stalker couple Theo found watching me, but in the meantime I had to deal with their glares and the stubborn, upset pheromones lurking in the air and turning sour in my lungs.

Minutes passed, at least.

Theo’s knee bobbed up and down relentlessly beside me while the suffocating quiet dragged on, and by the time Mason’s mother offered us drinks for the third time Corey was glaring at the deviating limb with a fury that promised something horrific.

He had just shot up out of his seat with a clenched fist when the front door opened, causing everyone to pause. Both Mason and I took the opportunity their distraction granted us and scrambled to restrain the two Chimeras before they tore each other apart.

Theo’s biceps rolled under my hands while Corey snarled at him.

“I could hit you so fucking hard right now.” He spat while he struggled against the barrier of Mason’s body.

I felt Theo’s smirk before I heard it.  
  
“I’d like to see you _try._ ”

“Theo, _stop._ ” I muttered to the back of his head, ignoring the fit of fury Corey suffered before Mason finally pushed him back into the sofa and held him there.

Malia walked into the sitting room to the scent of rage and derision. I pushed Theo back towards the couch we’d been sharing and the female werecoyote bristled with discomfort and ire at the sight of him.

“Why is _he_ here?” Her tone was loud and dripping with disgust.

“Why are _you_ such a hateful bitch?” Theo retorted almost immediately, his wit causing the hostility in the room to multiply tenfold.

“ _Theo._ ” I scolded him with an elbow to his ribs, exasperated that he couldn’t behave for at least half an hour. I turned to a furious Malia. “He’s here because I asked him to be.”

“Are you allies now, is that it?”

Theo said, “Yes.” while I said, “No,” and we looked at each other.

He saw me as an ally?

_Well, you are living together._

Theo’s eyes lit up with curiosity and a smirk started to lift on the left corner of his mouth. I tried not to stare and swallowed, aware that my cheeks were slowly flushing with red.

I turned back to Malia.  
  
“Please, just sit down. We need to talk.”

The werecoyote sent one last defensive glare towards the Chimera beside me and submitted to my request, stepping across the sitting room to join Corey and Mason on the sofa opposite Theo and I. It was the perfect symbolism to convey how they felt: it was the three of them against the two of us.

The conflict burned uncomfortably through my gut but I forced myself to keep calm.

“What have I ruined a perfectly good Saturday morning to talk about?” Malia deadpanned after settling in beside Corey.

I shot a sidewards glance at Theo, relieved to find him sitting placidly. No infuriating bobbing knees and no derisive smirks. He was serious.

“Theo caught a couple watching me from their car in the school parking lot.”

The three teens across from us still scowled, but the shift in their expressions was evident. Mason’s eyes softened the most.

“They were watching you?” He confirmed. “Like, _stalker_ watching you?”

Theo nodded beside me.  
  
“Binoculars and all.”

“What were _you_ doing at the school anyway?” Malia spat with a frown and Theo’s figure tensed beside me.

He instantly turned defensive.  
  
“Does it matter? Liam’s being stalked.”

“Yeah. By _you_.”

 _“Guys!_ ” I cried, stopping the budding argument before it grew. “Please, can we not argue about this?”

“How do you know he hasn’t made this up?” Malia tried to reason with me. “He could be lying about the entire thing.”

“And why would I do that?” The words come mockingly from Theo’s mouth.

“Uh, I don’t know – to _kill him?”_

I almost put my face in my hands; it was like dealing with two siblings made of chalk and cheese.

“If Theo wanted to kill me, he’d have done it a long while ago.” I argued back on a sigh. “He had plenty of opportunities and certainly wouldn’t have wasted the effort in saving me all those times.”

Malia defiantly fell quiet, sitting back against the cushions and crossing her arms over her chest. Corey spoke up.

“Could the couple be your parents?” He suggested gently, aware that the topic of my parents was a touchy one. He looked to Theo. “Did you see what they looked like?”

“It wasn’t them.” I shook my head. “Theo said the man was dark-haired and the woman was blonde. My mother and stepdad are the complete opposite.”

“Besides, they were too young.” Theo mused beside me. “They barely looked old enough to be in their thirties.”

The room was quiet for a moment while we deliberated. I could almost hear the gears turning in all of our brains.

“What kind of car did they drive?” Mason questioned. “We should try to keep an eye out for it on Monday, get a look for ourselves and catch the license plate.”

“It was a silver Mercedes, one of the newer models.” Theo provided. “It’s clear they have money, whoever they are. I’m almost positive they’re hunters.”

“If they are, why would they only be after Liam?” Mason probed, brows confused over his dark eyes. He indicated to Corey, Malia and Theo. “You guys are supernatural, too.”

The room fell quiet and I felt my heart quicken at the idea that I was the sole target; this couple hadn’t been looking for the others. They’d been looking for _me_ , and _only_ me. I wasn’t even sure what it was about me that painted the target on my back. I was just a regular beta.

_The only beta in this pack._

“Maybe they’re only hunting pure werewolves.” I suggested, trying to ignore the way my stomach turned in discomfort. “I’m the only proper _wolf,_ the only one who was Turned by the bite. Scott’s not in town and you guys are a different species entirely.”

I heard Theo’s heartbeat shift from beside me and turned to stare at him before I could stop myself. His face had turned hard, jaw firm and his eyes shining with the air of something defensive.

I swallowed; if Theo was this worried, the danger was real. It was something to be scared of.

“Maybe Liam should stay with me for the time being.” Mason’s voice was soft, concerned, and he earned nods from the two teens beside him. His eyes met mine. “Just in case they know where you live.”

I couldn’t stop the downward tilt of my worrying lip, glancing to Theo with an expression of uncertainty and dread.

Malia’s eyes narrowed.  
  
“There’s something you’re not telling us.”

I shut my eyes in defeat and lowered my head, trying to pluck up the courage to just spit it out when I felt a nudge to the outside of my left knee. My eyelids parted to find Theo’s leg flush beside mine, his knee pressed gently to the side of my own. It was a subtle shift of his posture, but I noticed.

 _It’s all right,_ his body language whispered.

I resisted the urge to give him a smile, looking up at my friends instead. 

“Theo’s staying at the house with me.” Their expressions floundered immediately. “Just in case.”

A small riot initiated.

“He’s _living with you?_ ”  
“You remember he’s a psycho, right?”  
“How could you choose to stay with him over your _friends?”_

I clenched my fists.

“ _Shut up.”_ I hissed, my patience wearing thin with all of the fighting. “I understand how it looks and I know how it makes you feel. I owe my life to you guys, but I owe it double to Theo. Plus he’s a lot stronger than either of you, whether you want to admit it or not. If these people come by, there’s a better chance of defending ourselves against them if it’s _him._ ”

I didn’t miss the way his heartbeat elevated at my words. His head turned in my direction and I could feel the smile he was trying to hide. His knee nudged at mine again and I looked back up from my lap.

My friends’ faces were reluctant, but softening. They knew I was right.

“He also needs a place to stay and I have the space. I owe him that much.”

I waited until submissive nods came from the three of them, and Mason’s expression appeared lost, helpless.

“We have to tell Scott.”

Malia and Corey were with him.  
  
“Definitely.”  
“He needs to know, Liam.”

I shook my head.

“We can’t tell him.” I said lowly while reluctance flooded my veins. “You know what he’s like – he’ll drop college just to come home and we can’t let him do that. College is everything he’s worked for, it’s his break away from this town and it’s the key to his future. We can’t mess that up with an unproven suspicion over a pair of possible hunters. It’s only two, we can handle them if we have to.”

“But it’s _Scott._ ” Malia pleaded seriously. “He’s our alpha, you’re his _beta._ There’s basically a blood bond between you and you know he won’t forgive himself if something happens to you while he’s gone.”

I shook my head softly, jaw clenched with the guilt.  
  
“I can’t ruin this for him. I won’t.”                          

A stressed blow of breath left Mason’s pursed lips and he leaned forward, elbows on his thighs and fingers kneading his temples.

“So what do we do?”

Theo’s knee nudged mine once more before his voice sounded, heavy in the silence between us and firm with determination. 

“We wait.”


	5. CHAPTER FOUR

 

I contentedly spent my Sunday morning stretched out on the only sofa my parents left behind, feet braced on the arm while I read through the _Gross Anatomy_ section of my textbook for the Biology homework. I had just scanned over the terms _circulatory system_ and _angiography_ when there was a grunt and a crash from the kitchen behind me.

“There’s no damn _food_ , Liam!”

I rolled my eyes at the inside of my textbook.  
  
“That’s because you managed to _eat it all_ in a matter of twenty-four hours.”

I could almost feel Theo’s sarcastic glare burning through the back of my head from the kitchen. He exhaled sharply.

“Yeah, because it’s all my fault.” He scorned. I heard his footsteps draw closer and he entered the living room. “We need to go shopping.”

I lifted my head from the Biology textbook in surprise.  
  
“We?” I repeated. “You and me?”

The Chimera nodded obviously and gestured with attitude around the empty room before us.

“Who else would I be talking about?”

I hiked my shoulders in surrender, a hand leaving the textbook to placate him and his hangry attitude.

“I just didn’t think you did groceries.”

A frown creased over his brow.  
  
“What else do you think I’ve been living on?”

I gave a shrug, my expression just slightly sardonic.

“Burger King. Chipotle.”

It was quiet for a short moment and I was concerned that I’d insulted him, but footsteps stalked towards where I laid on the couch. I retreated into the cushions, trying to make myself as small and flat as possible.

_He’s going to smack me._

Instead, he stopped beside my head and lifted the almost-too-tight grey t-shirt up his abs. His torso was nothing but one large, golden expanse of muscle, v-lines and fine dark hairs that drew my eyes down to the waistband of his jeans.

I swallowed when something warm and sharp coiled up in my belly.

“Does it _look_ like I’ve lived on takeout for the last six months?”

_He’s been homeless for an entire six months?_

I tried my best not to gape and stare, turning back to the Biology textbook with burning red cheeks. 

“Sure doesn’t.”

I felt him smirking down at my quiet form, but he said nothing. I didn’t doubt he’d noticed the flushed burn flaring across my skin.

He suddenly turned away, closing the door to the pantry and disappearing down the hallway beside the staircase.

“I’m putting on some laundry and then we’ll go.” He called through the house. “Get up.”

My eyebrows shot skyward at his words and I accepted the fact that I was well and truly distracted, and abandoned the Biology text for good. He was doing _laundry?_  
  
I never anticipated he would be so domestic.

 

I immediately decided we’d picked the worst day to go out.

Sundays were always busy at the local grocery store. Aisles were congested with a constant traffic jam of trolleys, and screaming babies could be heard from the back of the shop while you did your best to dodge running children as they skidded at your feet.

It was chaos. And it was almost too much for me to handle if the growing tightness in my chest was any indication. My breaths were shorter and I could hear absolutely everything – from the heartbeat of the woman beside me to the slide of someone's fingertips on the cardboard of a cereal box.

It was a little easier to manage in the fresh produce section, where there was a lot more space for customers to manoeuvre. I could breathe a little easier in there.

“Do you get claustrophobic?” Theo’s voice asked from my left, and I turned.

His expression was placid, calm and comfortable beside me. His body was leant over, half of his weight distributed on the shopping cart I’d let him take charge of operating. Seeing him in this kind of environment with such a relaxed attitude made him look oddly _normal._ I could almost look at him and forget the kinds of things we’d both seen and done in the past year.

Regular, everyday life suited him.

“No,” I replied to his question, avoiding eye contact and busying myself by picking some broccoli. “Just don’t like crowds. Too frantic.”

He followed me to the carrots. I could feel those hazel eyes on me while he wheeled in my wake.

“So it’s anxiety.” He probed.

I scowled, letting him see it.   
  
“Its not _anything._ I just don’t like them.”

Theo fell quiet, hands raised in surrender at my irritated mood. I realised my words had been a bit too sharp and felt remorse flood over me with a sigh.

“Are there any vegetables you don’t eat?” I asked, my voice almost soft.

“Cauliflower.”

My eyebrows rose and I looked to him in surprise.  
  
“Really?”

He nodded, lip lifting with distaste.   
  
“Tastes like ass.”

I tried my best not to laugh as his comment resonated inappropriately in my mind. The smirk curled over my lips and we continued through the fruit and veg section.

“And you’ve tasted ass before?” I assumed, unable to keep the amusement out of my voice.

He caught me off guard by turning from the cart to send a smirk of his own.  
  
“Do you honestly want me to answer that?”

It wasn’t even a question. Theo’s face was amused, open and honest like it always was when he knew he had the upper hand.

I blanched immediately, looking away and hoping he didn’t catch the way my breath hitched. I fought against my mind as it tried to visualise the concept he'd had just laid out for me. _I hope he’s joking._

_When does he ever make jokes?_

I swallowed and decided to push the idea as deep into the back of my mind as I could, considering it refused to leave entirely.

We made it through two aisles without incident, my heartrate keeping relatively steady and below 100 bpm. Turning into aisle three, I even started to feel a little better about the crowds.

It helped that Theo was there with me; his presence was somewhat reassuring. Maybe because deep down I knew he wouldn’t let anything happen to me.

He’d been surprisingly quiet, the conversation between us having lacked for at least five minutes. I didn’t realise that it was because he’d stopped following me until a loud, startling crash sounded from behind.

I turned immediately to find him, half his body inside the shopping cart where he’d crashed it into the shelving. The collision sent several boxes of mac and cheese tumbling to the ground and I narrowed my eyes at the sight of him in irritation.

I stomped up to him and yanked him from his compromised state inside the cart, promptly turning to apologise to the elderly woman he’d frightened. He straightened up and ran a hand through his dishevelled hair while I bent down to pick up the fallen boxes on the ground.

“How old are you, _twelve?”_ I hissed up at him over my shoulder.

He shrugged with an amused little grin.  
  
“Just always wanted to do that.”

I narrowed my eyes at him in exasperation.  
  
“Destroy the grocery store?”

“I didn’t _destroy_ it,” He complained. “Just wanted to run and slide on the cart but my weight tipped it.”

“Maybe you are fucking twelve.” I muttered.

I shook my head and turned away, continuing down the aisle towards the cereal. Theo wheeled the cart close by my side despite the crowds, his breath leaving him in an aggravated huff.

“Well sorry for never having a _childhood_ , Liam.” He nagged into my ear sourly. “You know, your mood swings are really starting to piss me off.”

I paused at his words, turning to face him immediately. I frowned in half confusion, half accusation.

“My _mood swings?”_

His eyes met mine. 

“You’re hot and cold.” He explained, his voice dropping a little lower while people filtered around us. “One moment you’re totally normal, and the next you’re a furious ball of stress like someone stole your teddy as a child.”

I blinked at him, my brain trying to rewind over the past couple of weeks and match up the details he’d just spilled. I looked back up to find him watching me closely.

His expression softened at the confusion on my face.  
  
“Has anyone honestly never told you?” 

 _No._  
  
I shook my head with a gentle frown of realisation, turning to continue quietly up the aisle. He stayed close by while I threw a carton of cereal into the trolley. Was he just trying to be an ass, or did I actually get mood swings? None of my friends had ever mentioned anything about it.

He nudged my hip with the shopping cart, walking beside me as we continued.

“Look, I didn’t mean to offend you.” He said softly. “I know you’ve got the IED-”

My jaw clenched and I felt my chest ignite with irritation.

“Sure, put a label on me.”

“But it’s not that.” He continued quietly, pointedly. “It’s not explosive anger, you’re just moody. Maybe it’s because you’re super stressed out by everything.”

“You’re not exactly helping, nagging me about it.”

“You have to _talk_ about it, Liam.” Theo pressed on while we passed by the coffee. “Letting someone else share the weight can help-”

“ _Theo.”_ I halted to a stop, turning to glare in his direction. I saw the blue of my eyes reflect in his. “I’m done talking about things. I’ve been forced to talk in the past, and I’m not going to be forced again now. Just drop it.”

The hazel green eyes before me softened, lowering before his shoulders dropped and he fell quiet in surrender with a shake of his head.

I whipped back around and walked on in an angry gait. It was quiet for all of thirty seconds.

“What’s _with_ you, anyway?” I carried on. “Six months ago you couldn’t have cared less if my head was attached to my shoulders or not. Now you’re acting concerned about what I’m _feeling?”_ I felt his eyes on me, but he remained quiet. “Just because I opened up once doesn’t mean I’m suddenly going to spill my problems to you every time I have a bad day.”

The words left my mouth before I could think to control myself and rein them in. The few moments of tension that followed between us made my chest ache, and I found that I regretted being so harsh on him. He was right: I _was_ moody. 

I stopped my angry stomping and slowed to a halt. He stopped with the cart beside me.

He spoke in a low voice so the customers around us couldn’t hear.

“Maybe I’m acting that way because I _am_ concerned about what you’re feeling.”

There was no denying the genuine, honest shine in his eyes when I looked up to meet them.

My frown remained, gentle and guarded.  
  
“You never used to care.”

He smiled a little, shrugged a shoulder softly.

“Times change.”

We stared at each other for a while, the sounds of the grocery store turning into white noise around us. Green eyes latched onto blue and for a moment it felt like I’d known Theo my whole life. He felt so familiar, the look on his face was so fond of me, and at that moment I knew he was right.

Times did change.

 _He_ had changed.

Initially I’d been uncertain about the signs he was leaving, still on-guard about trusting him because of all the times he’d double crossed people to get what he wanted. I’d been in denial, not willing myself to believe the things I was seeing. But now I was sure.

Theo was different.

I was sure that the expression on his face was genuine – and more importantly, voluntary. I was sure that the words coming from his mouth were the truth. I was sure that he wasn’t going to hurt or betray me in exchange for power. And I was sure that he _cared_ , no matter how horribly he showed it.

Theo was damaged, he was built for murder and had never _felt_ before coming across our pack. It was like he’d said: I had no idea what it was like to feel after feeling nothing your entire life. The fact of the matter was that he _did_ care. The feeling was there, but how to convey it was an entirely foreign concept to him. And I could live with that.

But I quickly came to realise that he _had_ tried to convey how he felt. He had just said it aloud, that he was concerned about me and what I was feeling – and I’d turned around and insulted him for trying to take the pressure off.

I opened my mouth, an apology about to expel when his eyes left mine.

They settled over my shoulder and suddenly hardened. The air around him shifted, turning from fondness to tension in a matter of seconds. But it wasn’t the same tension that I’d felt between us before. This one was almost hostile, provoked.

Something was wrong. 

The second I realised he’d seen something he didn’t like, he moved a step closer. He drew so close to me that our toes almost collided, and the heat from his skin radiated to mix with my own.

“What’s the matter?” I asked slowly and softly, so as not to startle him. I tried to ignore the amplified thunder of my heart at his closeness.

“It’s a bit suspicious,” He started, voice low. “We’ve passed by the same couple for six aisles now. I think they’re following us.”

 _Oh._  
  
I turned slowly, picking up a sauce jar from the shelf beside me and pretending to read the label before glancing up in the direction of interest. The man was tall with dark hair, the woman short with a baseball cap hiding her face. They didn’t seem overly suspicious, huddled towards the instant noodles amid the crowd of shoppers. Their cart was half-full with regular-looking items.

I turned back to Theo.

“You’re being paranoid.” I told him. “It happens sometimes, you pass the same people in every aisle. It’s just timing.”

He shook his head, however, his eyes not leaving the couple beyond my shoulder.

“I don’t trust them.”

“Well, what are you going to do?” I pointed out. “Attack them in the middle of the store? Fifty witnesses at least.”

He finally looked to me again, protectiveness shining through bold and fierce. It caused a swarm of butterflies to stir inside my stomach.

“I don’t trust them.” He repeated.

And I believed him.

I heaved a sigh and broke our eye contact, looking to the jars of chicken sauce as if their labels would provide all the answers.

“It’ll be okay.” I said eventually. “We’re in public, surrounded by people. They’d be stupid to try anything in here, even if they _are_ who you think they are.”

His eyes narrowed in uncertainty, still on the couple.

“If we stick together we’ll be fine.” I reassured him. “C’mon.”

It took me a moment to convince him to move. For a while he stood there, frozen like a sentry and glaring in the direction of the suspicious couple.

But a gentle nudge of my knuckles into his chest got him moving. Guarded pheromones still saturated the air around him and his skin was hot to touch even through the fabric of his t-shirt, but he loosened his shoulders and followed as I led the way out of the aisle.

We managed to make it through the rest of the shop without incident, paying half and half on the grocery bill and escaping out into the parking lot. Theo took regular glances past my shoulder as we left, but the couple was nowhere to be seen.

At home, we fell into a comfortable routine together, bringing grocery bags inside and moving around each other in the kitchen like we’d been living together for years. Theo had only officially lived with me for a day but I found him stacking items in all their correct places – and _neatly_ , to my surprise.

It was definitely a bizarre feeling. I would turn to put away the milk, and he would already have the fridge door open for me. A moment later when I turned to cross the kitchen to the pantry, our arms barely brushed as we slid past each other. It was _easy_ , and we worked together without putting much thought into it at all.

I couldn’t help but feel surprised at the strange, content feeling that blossomed inside my chest. I felt almost happy, almost _normal._

It almost felt like I was home. _Really_ home.

 

***

 

Theo insisted upon driving me to and from school, every single day since seeing the couple he believed was stalking me. He’d even made sure that his weekday hours at the café worked around school hours.  
  
School would end and he was there.

If I was being entirely honest, I didn’t mind not having to walk two miles every day – but it felt like he was going out of his way. And I never asked him to.

If he didn’t have to bend around school times he could work more hours at the café. He could earn more for himself, create more of a life that he enjoyed. But my insides quivered with a sense of satisfaction and fondness for what he was doing. He was giving me company, a face to see first thing in the morning before I went to school. He was adjusting his life to accommodate me, to help me and to _support_ me.

And he was unknowingly helping me through the day whilst I was in school.

His scent from the truck was etching into my clothes a little every morning. It was clinging to me. It would swirl into my airways every hour or two and the way my heartbeat would pick up in conjunction with my mood was the perfect juxtaposition.

It was making my days easier and my attitude better. I was concentrating a lot easier during class, a content comfort in my chest that I hadn’t felt since… well, _Hayden._ Since before the Dread Doctors.

It was most surprising that _Theo_ was causing that same emotion to arise but I wasn’t going to question it; it made me feel ten times better and even my friends were noticing it.

It was a week later, early on a Tuesday morning when something hit me whilst I was dressing for school. I had the t-shirt halfway over my shoulders, arms and elbows trapped underneath the fabric when I paused.

I felt my pupils dilate a tad and the wolf inside me twitched his nose in recognition.

I frowned slightly and inhaled. Inhaled again. 

And again. And _again_.

I lifted the shirt to my nose and immediately would’ve fallen woozy if it weren’t for the grounding nudge of heat that pooled in my lower belly at the smell.

I yanked the shirt down the rest of my chest and trod to the doorway of my bedroom, sticking my head out and calling down the hallway towards the spare bedroom where my parents used to sleep.

“Theodore.”

The brunette lifted an annoyed eyebrow from his new bedroom at the use of his full name.  
  
“ _What?”_

“Did you wash my clothes with yours?”

He gave an impatient shrug, his body language screaming, _why does this matter?_

“What detergent did you use?” I asked him slowly.

“Mine.” He stared with a suspicious frown. “Why? Do you have allergies?”

_Well I’m having a reaction, but I don’t think I’m allergic…_

I swallowed down the strange, warm feeling that stirred inside me.

“No.” I bit at my lip and sunk a little into the safety of my doorway. “No, just. Thanks.”

The Chimera’s frown hardened in confusion before he ducked back into his own bedroom.  
  
“Right.”

I nudged my bedroom door shut for privacy and lowered my chin to my chest, inhaling again. The same heated, provoked feeling that awakened inside my gut was almost instant and my eyes widened at myself in concern.

_This can’t be good._

                            


	6. CHAPTER FIVE

Another week in Beacon Hills passed relatively peacefully. There was almost complete radio silence from the Sheriff’s Station, save for the reporting of a vandalism case here and there.

It’d been over a week since Theo had spotted the suspicious couple at the grocery store that one Sunday, and we hadn’t seen them since. Their car had even been absent from the school parking lot all week, much to the pack’s frustration – if they didn’t show up, we were unable to take down their license plate, and that therefore meant we were no closer to finding out who they were, or what they were doing in Beacon Hills.

 

I walked into school Wednesday morning, feeling the familiar burn of Theo’s eyes on my back. I’d grown used to it; he would watch me fade into the crowd of students and his eyes wouldn’t leave me until I was safely inside the doors. It was reassuring and made me feel a lot safer, not to mention the bright spark his presence had been adding to my mornings.

But today, I was far from calm and collected; tonight was the full moon.

And it couldn’t have fallen on a worse time.

It was the middle of the week. The stack of homework was at its highest, classes dragged on slower than usual and there were still two entire days to go – so it wasn’t like I had the entire weekend to relax and let my body recover from the shift.

My shoulders were tense under the sleeveless varsity hoodie I wore and a permanent scowl was etched into my face as I entered the school. Considering almost the entire school now knew about the existence of werewolves and were-creatures alike, most students parted to let me through in the halls. I felt their lingering stares upon the solid, stressed planes of my back but it wasn’t because they were mocking me. They smelled more concerned.

I kept my head down, avoiding their eyes and focusing on the laces of my Converses as I took step after step, one at a time.

I didn’t have to look up upon reaching our row of lockers to know that Malia was in just as sour a mood as me. The air reeked of aggression and her pulse thrummed just as impatiently as mine.

Corey and Mason stood against their lockers, both unaffected by the change in atmosphere. This was one of the rare times I envied humans and Chimeras; their lives weren’t affected or powered by the moon. They were basically normal – or as normal as normal _gets_ in Beacon Hills.

I opened my locker and slid the backpack from my shoulder, glancing at my timetable before shuffling textbooks around. Corey’s voice was gentle, almost timid as it floated through the air.

“How are you guys feeling?”

I felt my jaw clench, my wolf roaring an irritated  _what do you think?_ but I suppressed the urge to vocalise it. I merely shrugged, keeping my head down whilst I continued to transfer schoolbooks into my bag.

Malia, however, gave voice to her emotions. A low growl left her chest, the ears of my wolf standing to attention as I realised it was meant for me. My head whipped up and her incensed brown eyes were the first I’d looked into all morning.

“I’d feel a lot better if Liam didn’t come to school stinking of homicidal Chimera every single day.” She hissed in response to Corey’s question, eyes hard on mine. “It’s like he bathes in _Theo_.”

_She doesn’t get to talk about him that way._

The young wolf in my chest gave a snarl and suddenly the door to my locker was slammed shut. I stormed towards the werecoyote, and with three long strides the both of us were face to face, low growls tearing from our throats and echoing through the halls.

Students around us turned to watch, gaping and retreating while our eyes flashed in furious flares of gold and blue. I heard the shocked mutters from amid their heartbeats. 

 _“Are they going to fight?”_  
_“I think so.”_  
_“Poor things. It must be the full moon.”_  
_“I think Liam’s kinda hot when he’s angry.”_  
_“I heard he’s taken.”_

I ignored the nonsense from their lips and felt a pair of hands close around my wrists. I yelled and snapped my teeth at Malia’s face while she roared and tried to do the same. The both of us were dragged apart with equal grunts of effort from Mason and Corey, trying their best to stand against our strength while we forced furiously towards each other.

“Okay, _nope._ ” Mason’s voice panicked through the hallway, the rubber of his shoes skidding on the tiles. “Liam, chill. _Chill._ ”

He gave one last shove at my chest and I listened, closing my eyes and backing up a few steps while I tried to calm the frantic breaths heaving in and out of my lungs. I heard dozens of footsteps start to thunder as people scattered from the scene, wondering to myself when I had grown so defensive regarding all things Theo.

I opened my eyes after a few deep breaths, finding Mason’s worried face before mine. He had his back to Malia and Corey, just as Corey had his back to us.

His hand squeezed at my shoulder.  
  
“You okay? Not going to wolf out on me?”

I nodded stiffly, running a hand through the long locks my hair had become over the past six months. I glanced up to where Corey was placating Malia, a wave of regret washing over me.

Mason must have noticed the sorrowful expression on my face because he stepped closer and squeezed at my shoulder once more.

“You know it’s just the full moon, Li.” He reassured me softly. “She can’t control it.”

I gave a nod and looked away, trying to control the fury still aching to expel from my chest.

“Find an anchor. The sun, the moon, the truth – remember?”

I closed my eyes at his reminder and repeated the mantra to myself over and over again. My heart was still thumping restlessly but I tried to focus.

_The sun, the moon, the truth. The sun, the moon, the truth. The sun. The moon. The truth._

I opened my eyes to Mason’s hopeful expression, feeling panicked and a little surprised when my heartrate refused to slow.

A worried frown fell over my face and I shook my head.  
  
“It’s not working.”

Mason’s eyes widened a little.

“It’s not _working?_ ” He repeated with a concerned weight to his tone. “Are you concentrating properly, were you breathing-?”

“ _Yes,_ Mase, and it’s _not working._ ”

“Okay, okay, calm down. It’s all right.” He pushed on my chest and backed me up a few paces, slowing to a stop when we had a little more privacy from the surrounding students. “What’s something else? Try think of something good, something that relaxes you. Music, a certain place. A sound or a smell.”

I huffed a distressed sigh and tried again, closing my eyes.

Immediately I became aware of the smell from my shirt, the fresh sweetness of Theo’s laundry detergent wafting into my airways. I concentrated on it and let my mind get a little lost in it.

I heard Theo’s laugh, saw the browns and greens of his eyes and the inside of his truck. I saw the way his hands would rest upon the wheel and the ripple of his biceps when he shifted gears. I smelled the aroma of his skin in the lining of the seats and heard the soft blare of Three Days Grace from his speakers. I saw the way he’d scowl under the tangled fluff of bed-hair in the mornings and the way he cut up his food. I heard the way he swore when an appliance frustrated him, and lastly, I saw the way he smirked when happiness was a fond, significant weight inside his chest.

“ _Damn.”_

My eyes snapped open, brought back to the present to find my best friend smirking in disbelief. When I stared at him blankly he explained.

“Whatever you just thought of, it worked a dream.” His head shook in surprise. “The way you look, you could’ve just fallen out of bed if I didn’t know better.”

I blinked at myself, running a palm over my face to mask the shock and confusion I was currently experiencing. I even _felt_ like I’d just fallen out of bed, the beating of my heart slower and steadier than it had been in weeks.

The bell sounded above us as if on cue, and Mason grinned at me as I retrieved my backpack and walked with him to our double lesson of Physics.

I took the day slow, trying as best I could to keep a level head and ignore the incessant everyday sounds that threatened to send me into a spiral of irritation. When I felt it getting too much, I lowered my head into the shoulder of my hoodie to inhale deeply. The familiar scent that infiltrated my airways would calm my wolf and ignite that gentle warmth in my stomach.

But it slowly lost its touch. I found that soon, the mere stain of it in my clothing wasn’t enough. I found myself craving the real thing.

By the end of the day my fists were clenched tight, my veins pumping with the urge to break something when the voices in the school corridors got too loud. At final bell I stalked out into the afternoon sunlight, finding Theo’s truck in the same spot we’d met at for a week and a half now.

I clambered in and tossed my schoolbag into the backseat with an overwhelmed huff, slouching into the seat and lowering my head into my hands. It took me a long moment to resurface from the flood of anger that had almost drowned me, focusing and letting myself breathe.

The scent of Theo, the _real scent_ , was strong inside the truck.

It filled my airways and engulfed my lungs, lightening my head and calming down the raging heartbeat that had been vibrating inside my chest. The smell was slightly altered, tinted with the aroma of coffee and a little dishwater, but it was still there underneath.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Came Theo’s voice, soft into the quiet of the truck, and I couldn’t stop the gentle flutter of comfort that came from my chest.

I took my hands away from my face and looked out the window, shaking my head with a deep sigh.

“Just drive.”

He nodded in my peripheral vision and pulled out of the parking lot, just remaining as a quiet, comforting presence beside me while he drove us home.

I pushed my way inside after him and made a beeline for the stairs, shutting myself in my bedroom and drawing the curtains closed. I turned on some music and tried as best I could to concentrate on typing the draft for my English Lit oral while an underlying, threatening fire grew hotter inside my chest the closer nightfall came.

 

***

 

Theo’s POV.

 

I kept my ears open all evening for signs that Liam was in distress.

He’d been dead quiet since school pickup. I mean, he was _always_ fairly quiet – but this was worse. The minute he’d jumped into the truck I knew the full moon was affecting him badly. The smell of fury and angst had filled the car and I’d known he needed space. A voice in my head had nagged me to distract him with some lame attempt at conversation, but immediately the small fraction of wolf inside my blood told me _no._

Liam needed reassurance. He needed me to be _there,_ but not so nearby that he felt suffocated.

It had been unusually difficult to keep my distance, especially when he shut himself in his room the minute we got back, but the feeling inside had harassed me to _leave him be_ – like an invisible barrier of restraint was forcing against my chest.

I understood him, after all. I’d never experienced the full moon but I knew what fury was like. I felt furious about a lot of things: at the Dread Doctors for fucking me up, at myself for surrendering to them and for killing my own sister, at myself _again_ for betraying the trust of anyone who tried to care about me. At the misleading slogans on chip packets, at the smell of pickles and werecoyotes, and especially, _especially_ at the two sly, cunning people I’d found stalking Liam.

I sighed, flicking mindlessly through channels on the TV in my bedroom whilst the sky outside grew darker and darker. As much as I tried to pretend otherwise, I was concerned about the kid. He was young and innocent, _too_ damn young and innocent for this kind of shit to have happened to him.

How could a freshly-turned seventeen year-old with a rough past manage to deal with life the way he had managed to? I wasn’t an expert on him, but I knew he’d been kicked out of his first high school for behavioural issues – something about totalling his coach’s car with a crowbar. I knew they’d called him a damaged kid with Intermittent Explosive Disorder and chucked him in a psychiatrist’s office to rant about his feelings.

Instead of his parents finding a way to help him, he’d been dumped in Beacon Hills High where he got himself into more dangerous shit that led to being turned into a werewolf. He _then_ spent the next year and a half of his life fighting homicidal supernaturals and humans and solving crimes whilst putting his life on the line for people who barely issued a _thank you_ when he was done.

Somehow the fucker had survived all of it, finished the war for good, only to come home to an empty fucking house void of the parents he’d tried so hard to change for, with the excuse that their son was a complete monster whom they never wanted to see again.

An angry breath left my chest and I decided I was adding his parents to the list of things I was furious about. I knew I was one to talk, but it was totally beyond me how they could have been so fucking _heartless._ Maybe it was the ever-growing fondness for him inside me talking, but nothing warranted that kind of abandonment. He _didn’t deserve_ it.

Despite my well-known tendency to betray and belittle anyone and everyone around me, I wanted to help him. I couldn’t imagine the kind of things he had going through his head and was honestly concerned that he was going to break if he kept bottling it all in. I wanted him to talk. I wanted to know what he felt and what was stressing him out. I wanted to hear about his problems and find ways to _fix_ them.

It was a bit of an internal struggle for me. I couldn’t believe it was true – that I was truly starting to care very strongly for him – but actually getting him to open up about his problems was an entirely _different_ struggle. One that, so far, I had no idea how to approach.

I shut the TV off, my mind unable to focus on anything but Liam and food. Hours had passed at least and the beta still hadn’t come out.

I checked the time on my phone and shook my head in disbelief when _11:41 p.m._ flashed up at me.

_I’m sorry Liam, but this is getting ridiculous._

I rolled off the bed and made a beeline across the hall to the closed door of his bedroom, raising an eyebrow at the deafening boom of heavy metal seeping from underneath. It wasn’t that I minded the music – his taste was actually fairly good. But if he hadn’t gotten a headache from the blare yet then some existing, underlying brain defect was a legitimate concern.

I raised a hand to knock but rolled my eyes at myself; it’s not like he’d hear it over the damn music anyway. It felt like a breach of privacy but I forced myself to twist the doorhandle, cracking it open and peering in.

Something inside my gut dropped uncomfortably when darkness was the only thing to greet me.

I threw the door all the way open and stared into the empty bedroom. The music was still blaring but Liam was nowhere to be found, and the cool draught that brushed through my hair from the open window could only indicate where he’d gone.

Dread filled me, an emotion I was still trying to get used to experiencing.

I’d forgotten about the full moon.

It was nearly damn midnight and I had sat in the other room while Liam potentially ripped his hair out with stress all night. The moon watched me from the sky as though it were mocking me, the grey orb only just visible from below the top ledge of Liam’s window.

If it had a damn face, I would be sure to punch it.

I turned immediately, snatching up my phone and house keys and letting myself out the front door as quickly as I could.

I locked up and started running.

The street around me was mostly asleep, all the houses eerie with darkness and no car motors rushing by in the near distance. All I could hear was the standard sounds of night: the wind, the frogs and the crickets.

I searched the street for a heartbeat, trying to listen properly over the thunder of my own. I listened, waiting and expecting to pick up on the stressed, frantic thrum that I knew to be Liam’s, but it wasn’t coming.

I reached the end of the street, stopping just before the woods and looking up at the sky. I waited for the wind to change direction, glaring into the moon and wondering to myself why it had to be such a hindrance to the werewolves and not a support.

Liam’s scent had just brushed past me when I noticed the charcoal shadow obscuring an entire half of the moon’s shine.

_You’ve got to be kidding._

It was a half-lunar eclipse.

It wasn’t expected and I was positive it wasn’t meant to have happened this late in the month, but it was right in front of me. And it meant that Liam only had half of his power until sundown tomorrow. Which meant that if he got himself hurt… _fuck._

I turned and followed his scent into the forest, running at least a quarter mile in before it finally became stronger. It was mostly made up of distress and the coconut of his hairwash, doing nothing to soothe the unsettled feeling inside my gut.

Finally, his heartbeat came into earshot and I slowed from a run to a fast walk, my eyes scanning the darkness around me. It grew louder and louder until his scent hit me square in the face, nothing but anxiety and torment.

I stopped short and searched the forest floor for him, positive he was close.

“Liam.” I called out evenly, not too loud and not too quiet.

I waited.

A set of clouds floated overhead and I craned my neck to watch as they slowly obscured the full moon, blocking out its shine almost completely. I heard the relieved effect it had on Liam’s heartbeat immediately, the smell of his skin softening in the air around me.

“Li, I know you can hear me.” I uttered into the trees, the nickname slipping out and dancing off my tongue. “I’m not here to hurt you. I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

I never thought the day would come when I’d say those kinds of words and genuinely mean them. I waited and watched, the thrum in my chest beating a little harder the longer I stood there.

Slowly, a glowing pair of amber eyes peered out from behind the trunk of a fig tree some twenty yards away.

My heart fell in relief that Liam was safe, unhurt. I took a few steps closer, not missing the way his heartbeat thrummed harder at my movement.

“Have you been out here this whole time?” I asked into the darkness, my eyes never leaving the glow of his.

He nodded, letting his body come out from behind the thick trunk of the tree.

He was filthy, his clothes covered in dirt and what looked like mud. The long silky shocks of his hair had fallen over his face, streaked with sweat and framing the ovals of his cheekbones.

At first I felt relieved that he was coming out, but the tense expression in his face made me pause. Something was wrong.

He lifted his hands. His claws were out, skin covered in something dark.

It was then that I realised it wasn’t mud that he was covered in. It was blood.

My heart skipped a beat and I stared at him, worried and on guard.

“What have you done?” I asked slowly, warily.

I moved to take a few gradual steps towards him, watching his body language for signs of fear. He stood still and let me come closer.

That’s when I saw the tree.

There were claw marks, slashes made deep into the bark from left to right. Inside the crevices were more stains of the same dark red that painted Liam’s hands. The blood was metallic and sour in my lungs, but it smelled familiar.

It was his.

I looked up to him in surprise, suddenly understanding. He’d been hurting _himself_ to avoid hurting someone else. The beta was almost trembling, his muscles tensed tight while the power of the full moon wracked through his body.

“Liam.”

I reached out tentatively, slowly so as not to frighten him.

I opened my hand, stepping forwards to close the rest of the distance between us and he retreated, body moving back into the shadow behind the tree. He’d almost turned to run when our eyes met.

I held contact with the amber orbs, nodding gently at him. _It’s okay._

He let me close the distance between us, lifting his hands and placing them into mine palms up. I let my fingers slowly curl around his, my thumbs caressing gently into his palms. His heartbeat spiked a little when our skin met but he stayed still.

His claws retracted at my touch and I inspected the damage on his fingers, ignoring the sensations my own body was making me feel. His nails had been split and were broken off here and there. I almost felt the pain just looking at them but the bleeding had stopped and they were already starting to heal.

I looked back up to his face.

“Are you okay?” I asked softly. A content feeling was spreading through my veins, having him safe and staring back at me.

He nodded, eyes still glowing in the night. His heartbeat still hadn’t slowed down but I expected it wouldn’t, not until the full moon was over.

“I think I’m going to kill someone.” 

His voice came out rough. His eyes narrowed, stressed and a little afraid. His hands started to shake in mine.

“I haven’t felt this out of control since my first shift.” His voice tremored through the darkness. “There’s so much anger and nothing I do will make it stop.”

My thumbs had a mind of their own, rubbing firm, soothing circles into the beta’s tender palms. I could understand why this full moon felt so horrible for him; he’d been stressed to the limit lately and all the negative emotions were being bottled up. Now it was all being forced out and he had no control over it.

“Use your mantra.” I told him encouragingly, a coil of worry forming in my gut at the sight of him in so much distress.

He opened his mouth to speak, head shaking when light poured over us from above. The clouds had passed and the full moon was back in full view.

Liam flinched, wrenching away from me with a deep growl and backing away while his wolf reappeared, eyes glowing and golden in the darkness of the trees. I was determined, however.

I followed after him, followed the aggravated, afraid tremor of his heartbeat.

“Leave.” He warned me as he backed further away. He was barely visible anymore, his eyes the only two parts of him I could see. “Before I do something to hurt you.”

I pursued him into the darkness stubbornly, letting my Chimera show itself. My eyes burned gold, meeting with the identical glow of his.

He growled aloud, the fierce warning sending an echo into the woods around us and scaring bats from their perches with shrill screams. My Chimera prickled in challenge at the wolf’s warning but I reined in the urge to growl back.

The moon seemed to follow Liam wherever he went, haunting his movements even from through the trees.

“Liam.”

The beta growled again, a little louder this time.

“Are you asking for a fucking fight?!” He hissed through the shadows. “Go!”

“I’m not going anywhere.” I growled back, now standing mere yards from him.

I was close enough that I could see the frantic rising and lowering of his chest, the full curve of his lips in the darkness.

In one quick, fluid movement, his arm was braced over my collarbones. He slammed me backwards and trapped me hard against the trunk of a tree with a loud, ferocious snarl. His eyes burned and his teeth came dangerously close to grazing against my jaw, but I didn’t flinch.

“ _Fucking leave!”_

I shoved him backwards, my Chimera snarling back in dominance. I stalked after his fallen form on the forest floor, kneeling over his face and flattening his body to the ground with the force of a long, protective roar.

“ _No!”_

His fist collided with my left cheekbone and the fight began.

We kicked and shoved, clawed and punched. Heads were slammed against trees and chests slashed at with sharp talons. Blood started soaking through our clothes and my concern began to spike for Liam’s wellbeing – he wasn’t healing nearly as quick as he was supposed to. The half-eclipse was draining the strength from him.

We had to stop.

I tried for a few long seconds before gaining the upper hand, grasping at his wrists and pinning him against the tree with my body. Our chests fell and rose together, our bodies pressed up against each other with nothing left between but a few pockets of air.

I tried to ignore the purr that came from my Chimera at being in such close, explicit contact with the beta. There was an incredible force inside me, urging me to lower my face into his throat and nuzzle at the scent gland, to make myself drunk on the smell of him. I had to take several deep breaths to steady myself before I actually went through with it.

_What is he doing to me?_

 “Liam, you need to stop.” I warned while he squirmed against my weight. “This isn’t you.”

“ _Let me go!”_

“You have to _stop!_ Use your mantra, like Scott taught you!” He was barely listening to a word I said, his eyes burning with panic and the instinct to fight. “You’re going to hurt yourself badly before the night is over if you continue like this.”

He still continued to struggle against me but his attempts were slowly becoming half-hearted. I could hear and feel his heartbeat racing but it wasn’t in anger anymore so much as it was with nervousness.

Something sweet was rolling off of him in waves. The smell was like a mixture between shy anxiety and fondness. It was trying to draw me in and I had to exercise some serious restraint to avoid doing something that I wouldn’t be able to justify later.

“The mantra doesn’t work,” He huffed against me, his breaths hoarse as he tired out. “I tried it today and it did nothing. I’m losing control of myself.”

Something inside me went soft with sympathy at the helpless tone in his voice. I tried to calm him down.

“Liam, you’re not losing control.” I reassured him, my voice quiet. “You’re stressed. You’ve bottled all this shit up and now it’s trying to come out. You just need to find another anchor, something else that grounds you.”

His eyes opened then, the amber orbs fierce in the darkness between us. I could see my own reflect in his pupils.

“You just need to think, yeah?” I encouraged him softly. “Find something that helps with the conflict.”

I watched while he nodded shortly, his hair almost brushing with mine before he leant his head back against the tree and panted with exhaustion. His eyes closed and he took concentrated breaths, his chest heaving against mine. His muscles started loosening as he thought of whatever he’d found to ground himself and I smiled with a little pride at his success.

I found myself memorising the planes of his face, eyes rolling over his dark lashes and the shadows of his cheekbones. I traced his jaw and let myself stare at those lips, curved and parted – the top lip looking just that bit fuller than the lower one.

I felt a fierce heat pooling in my stomach the longer I dared to look.

A stroke of electricity suddenly sparked through my chest as I realised for the first time that I really wanted to know what those lips tasted like.

I wanted to touch this beta’s face, to learn the curves and lines of his existence… and I wanted to taste the smoothness of this skin that I’d been drunk on the scent of for longer than I would ever want to admit.

My eyes raked down the column of his throat, his windpipe working under the skin as he heaved slow breaths. I felt my lips ache at the sight, trying not to torture myself with the need to bite down on that flesh and hear the _cry_ that came out.

_Fuck. I need to stop._

I quickly noticed that his heart had finally slowed and his eyes were now on mine, the golden glow no longer at such a furious burn. I realised, with a flash of dread, that he’d caught me staring.

We stood pressed together against the tree for what felt like an eternity, the both of us staring and breathing whilst our hearts beat in unison. They were racing again, but with a new kind of tension. This one was excited, roused and curious. I thought I saw fondness shine into Liam’s eyes before I swallowed, forcing myself to let him go.

I stepped back and released him from the tree. He followed me for a few steps and looked over me with remorse.

“I’m sorry.” He whispered into the space between us.

“Don’t be.” I shook my head softly. “I’ll heal.”

The beta looked over the injuries he’d made on my arms, cheeks and chest. Sorrow passed over his face before he looked down at himself.

“I’m not healing properly.”

I nodded, stepping a little closer to study the angry slashes upon his stomach.

“It’s a half-eclipse tonight.” I explained. Liam looked up to the half-shadowed moon. “Your strength has basically been halved. You’ll heal, but it’ll take a little longer. You just need to try to stay calm for the rest of the night, yeah?”

He nodded in surrender, jaw clenched in effort when the moon shone into his eyes.

I smiled softly at the beta before me. He was stronger than he gave himself credit for, and whatever he’d found inside himself as an anchor had worked exceptionally. Whatever it was, it was strong.

“What did you think of?” I asked quietly, letting the curious smile tilt up on the corners of my lips.

His heartbeat suddenly skipped again and his eyes shot up to mine.

It was silent for a long moment, the air thick with the same shy anxiety from before. I’d almost frowned in confusion when his mouth opened to speak.

But no sound got to come out. My eyes directed over his shoulder just in time to catch sight of the red laser as it fell over his shoulder blade.

My eyes widened and I moved immediately, reaching forward in panic to grab for him and throw him out of the way.

_“LIAM!”_

But I was a split second too late.

The sniper fired with a deafening crack and the bullet tore into his right shoulder.

Dread filled me from head to toe, sickness and panic rising in my gut as his eyes glazed over with shock and pain, his body falling forward with the impact from the bullet. A terrible, excruciated cry left his throat and I could’ve sworn I felt my heart crack into a million fucking pieces.

He lifted a shaking hand to where the blood had started to spill from under his collarbone, the tip of the bullet almost protruding through the front of his shirt. It had almost made it straight through.

His legs gave out.

I caught him as he fell forward, my Chimera crying out at the desperate, pained whine that tore from our beta’s throat.

“Liam, _no,_ ” I begged, cradling his limbs and trying to pull him behind the safety of a tree as the sniper shot again.

The second bullet narrowly missed our heads, whizzing by like lightning. I yelled in fright, propping us against the tree and covering Liam’s body with my own while he trembled underneath me. The gasps and cries left his mouth breathlessly, sending my heart into a racing frenzy of fear and _fury_.

I accidentally leaned too far out from behind the trunk and another shot sounded, the impact of the bullet that sunk into my left bicep knocking me back and off balance. I cried out, snarling with the pain and pulling Liam’s body closer frantically.

He tucked his head close into my chest, wheezing in pain, and my heart cracked some more.

I lifted my head with a scowl and let my Chimera _roar_ , the mere power of it deafening and fiercely protective against the hunters who’d injured us.

 _“What do you want?!”_ I bellowed past the tree at them. “ _What the fuck do you want with him?!”_

The gentlest of feminine laughs sounded into the forest, at least fifty metres away. I’d only just picked up on the noise and it made my blood boil.

“I’m going to fucking kill you!” I promised in a furious yell, my voice harsh in the quiet of the trees. “I’m going to tear you both _limb_ from fucking _limb,_ and I promise there will be _nothing_ left when I’m done with you!”

“I expect nothing less from a murderer.” Came the arrogant, self-assured masculine voice. “I invite you to _try_ , Theo Raeken.”

The violent roar got caught in my throat when a shaking hand fisted my shirt between its fingers. I looked down to the beta in my arms, trembling and convulsing in pain against my chest.

My hands found Liam’s cheeks, lifting his face.

“Liam, look at me.” I whispered down to him. “Please.”

He opened his eyes, the golden burn of his wolf having turned to grey.

Tears brimmed upon his lashes at the pain that coursed through his body. The blood now covered the entire shoulder of his t-shirt and upon glancing down to the wound, I noticed black veins trailing down his arm and up the side of his throat.

_No…_

My eyes widened at the sight and panic lodged in my throat.

He’d been hit with something _bad._ Something extremely harmful to werewolves.

“W-wolfs…bane.” Liam panted, beautiful face distorted in agony underneath me.

Dread almost paralysed me. I didn’t know an awful lot about werewolf poisons, but I knew wolfsbane was meant for killing.

I shook my head.  
  
“I need you to stay strong, okay?” My voice was far from steady. “I’m going to get you help, I promise.”

“It… it hurts.” The beta whined. “Theo, _it hurts.”_

Suddenly, I was reminded of Gabe. I saw the teen on the hospital floor in my mind, in a pool of his own blood with desperate brown eyes looking up at me.

_“It hurts.”_

The voice echoed from my memory, except this time my heart cracked upon hearing it.

Because it’s _Liam._

I shook my head in despair, looking helplessly over his trembling body. I lowered a hand to his forehead and shakily brushed the long hair off his face, my fingers gentle upon his skin.

The pain in his eyes was almost too damn much for me to bear.

“Where’s your phone?” I ask urgently, trying to keep the tremor out of my voice. “We need to call someone. _Anyone._ ”

“Back… pocket.”

I readily retrieved the iPhone and swiped it open, searching his recent contacts and calling the first name I came across. I listened to the dial tone for what felt like forever, seconds ticking by like years with Liam struggling in pain against my chest.

I was starting to believe no one would answer when Mason’s voice came through the phone.

“Liam?” He croaked tiredly. “It’s one in the morning, what are you-?”

“Mason, it’s Theo.” I explained in a rush. I cradled Liam closer into my chest with my free arm. “Liam’s been shot, I need to get him to Deaton’s.”

“He’s _what?_ How? When?”

“We’re _wasting time_ , just promise me you’ll call ahead to warn Deaton we’re coming.”

“Okay… okay, I’ll call him.” Mason seemed to be struggling to adapt to the situation. “I’ll meet you there.”

“Thank you.”

“ _Theo?”_ Mason‘s voice sounded hesitant. “Don’t let him die. _Please._ ”

I looked down to where Liam laid in my arms, trying to bury himself as deep into my chest as he could – as though the contact would take his pain away. His hands were almost tearing the material of my shirt in his pain and I squeezed my eyes shut, my Chimera crying out for him from deep inside me.

“See you soon.” Was all I said to Mason.

Tucking the phone into my own back pocket, I gathered the beta's shivering limbs in my arms and lifted.

A cry of pain sounded into my chest at the movement and I held him closer, his soft chestnut hair brushing against my lips.

“I’m sorry, it’s the only way to move you.” I whispered into his hair as I started walking, glancing around frantically for more red lasers. “I’m going to make it all stop, I promise.”

My heart was in my mouth the entire way to my truck, walking as fast as I could without jostling Liam too much in my arms. The walk took much longer than I expected and impatience grew in my gut.

The fists in my shirt were growing looser, his breaths heaving shallower.

“Stay with me, Li.”

His fists tightened again while he panted against my throat, a subtle sign that he could hear me.

My hands shook as I drove us across town to the veterinary surgery, my heart palpitating harder inside my chest the quieter Liam’s breaths became. The lights were on inside the surgery when I pulled up at the door, Mason’s car already waiting out the front.

He and Corey stood together with Deaton at the front door, all dressed in pyjamas of some form. They ran to help me as I lifted Liam out of the truck, his skin pale with more black veins spreading up his jaw and touching to the tips of his fingers.

“What the hell happened?” Mason’s voice asked, faint with shock at the sight of his best friend. Corey’s expression was almost ashen.

I pushed past the two to follow Deaton inside, holding Liam protectively into my chest. The injured beta curled in closer, his eyes squeezed tight shut.

“He was out in the full moon.” I tried to explain without my words shaking, but to no avail. “Hunters found him – I’m certain it’s the same couple I caught watching him.”

We reached the examination room and I stopped short, suddenly unwilling to surrender him over to Deaton. I held him closer and looked down upon his face, my own expression breaking from its practised, emotionless façade and letting a frown of worry take over.

“Lay him here.”

I looked up as Deaton switched on the lamp over his operating table and I reluctantly obeyed, lowering the beta to the metal benchtop carefully.

“Be gentle with him.” I warned the vet, stepping back to give him some room to work.

Liam looked too pale under the work light, his blood having turned black from the poison. It was sharp against his skin in comparison.

Deaton scissored his shirt off and examined the damage to his shoulder. I felt truly sick at the sight of the black veins that were slowly spreading towards his heart.

“He’s been shot with a mild dose of aconitum anthora – a particularly rare form of wolfsbane.” Deaton explained as he prepared tweezers and a steel tray with gauze and some alcohol. “It’s expensive, not a lot of hunters can get their hands on it. But whoever shot him wasn’t intending to kill.”

My head shot up and I glared. _What?_

“This dose was only large enough to weaken and disorient him.” The vet concluded.

Mason and Corey gaped from beside me.

“Why wouldn’t they try to kill him if they were hunters?” Corey questioned. “Their aim is to _kill_ supernaturals, not abduct them.”

I shook my head, fury bubbling back up at the idea of the couple who’d shot us.

“They’re not regular hunters.” I said darkly. “They want him for something.”

Mason nodded to me indicatively.  
  
“They shot for you, too.”

My eyes directed down to my own bleeding left arm but shrugged it off.

“Because I got in their way. I’ll be fine, it’s not affecting me. We need to focus on saving Liam.”

I watched as Deaton carefully pushed at the skin around the protruding bullet in Liam’s shoulder. The beta cried out, the noise catching and gurgling in his throat as the tears fell down his temples.

_No. Stop._

I rushed forwards, Mason and Corey following behind me as Liam’s body writhed on the bench. The two of them held down on his limbs to keep him still for Deaton while my hands fell to his cheeks. His skin was hot under my palms and so, so soft.

“Liam, we’re right here.” I said clearly above the agonised beta. “We’re going to make it stop, you just have to stay strong. Please.”

Colourless eyes then opened to look up at me, water spilling from the corners in colourless tears. It twisted uncomfortably in my chest to see him in such a state.

He shakily raised a hand up towards me and I took hold of it, pressing it into my chest. My eyes never left his.

“Stay with me.” I whispered down to him, and he nodded back up at me.

I glanced up and sent a nod to Deaton.

The vet started to dig the bullet from Liam’s shoulder and I shut my eyes, concentrating. He cried out and tensed at the contact with his wound, but the sound turned into a gasp not a moment later. I opened my eyes to see him gape up at me as the veins in his wrist started to move.

His agony transferred through his hand and into my heart, below his palm. I winced and groaned under the pain but refused to let his hand go. I held onto it tight, not letting go until his eyes turned back to blue and the bullet was out safely.

Thick yellow fumes rose from the wound in his shoulder as the wolfsbane left his body. With the help I offered by taking his pain, the wound started to heal almost immediately. I sighed in relief, exhaustion riding on a wave through my body as it processed the pain I’d taken in.

Liam panted up at me, staring while Corey and Mason let go of his limbs and Deaton began cleaning and dressing his wound.

“You shouldn’t have done that.” He breathed up to me, his hand still held firmly over my chest.

My eyes had turned dark with the pain but I stared down at him in relief.

“Yes.” I whispered, brushing a hand over his forehead. “I should have.”

I heard his heartbeat quicken, felt it in the pulse of his hand against my skin.

His eyes were slowly closing with exhaustion but he fought to keep them open long enough to send me a lazy, grateful smile.

“ _Thank you.”_

An elated feeling blossomed inside my heart, reprieve flooding through me when those blue eyes closed and he drifted off to sleep to heal from his injuries. If he was sleeping, it meant he felt no pain.

It meant he was going to be okay.

“You’re welcome.” I mouthed into the quiet room.

I finally lifted his hand away from my chest, laying it down over his abdomen and stroking a thumb across his knuckles before stepping back. I rubbed a hand over my face tiredly, my heart finally slowing down.

Corey and Mason both looked to me, their eyes filled with something very similar to surprised gratitude.

“You saved his life.” Corey stated softly. “Again.”

I gave a half-hearted shrug and looked back towards the resting beta, a tingle touching my heart at the sight of him painless.

“Anyone else would have done the same thing.” I murmured back.

“It took a lot of strength,” Deaton’s voice was smooth and even as it called through the room. “To help him through that the way you did. He’s extremely lucky you were there.”

I almost gaped at the praise – no one had ever said anything close to a compliment to me before and it was a little hard to swallow.

Mason and Corey nodded in agreement with the vet.

“He’s right.” Mason coincided. “Who knows what would have happened to him if you hadn’t been there.”

All I could do was swallow and glance back to the injured boy on the examination table. Their words were all well and good, but in all honesty I wasn’t sure what would have happened to _me_ if I hadn’t been there to save him. The idea that I’d have woken up in the morning to find him missing made me feel sick with dread. I never would have forgiven myself for neglecting him when he needed someone _there_.

Deaton soon had his wound sterilised and dressed, the remains of the bullet laying mangled on the steel tray beside him. I couldn’t look at it without pure anger boiling through my veins, the mere size of it and the idea that it had almost gone straight through his shoulder just too much to handle.

Corey, Mason and I thanked Deaton and I was allowed to take Liam home. The clinic was closed up behind us while Corey and Mason followed me to the truck.

I settled Liam onto the seat as gently as I could, the beta stirring in his drowsy state.

“Have you heard anything from Malia?” I asked behind me quietly, trying not to wake him.

“We left her a message but she hasn’t called back.” Corey shook his head. “Who knows where she is out there. The full moon hit her hard today, too.”

I nodded and shut the door behind Liam, turning and stuffing my hands into the back pockets of my jeans.

“I should get him home.” The quiet of the night between the three of us felt strangely peaceful, neither of us trying to insult the other for once. “Thank you for calling Deaton, and for coming to be with him.”

The boyfriends nodded solemnly.

“Thank _you._ ” Mason’s voice was soft. “We’re really grateful for what you did for him.”

I backed away with one last nod of my head, waving once before jumping into the truck and starting the engine. A strange feeling rolled over me as I watched Corey and Mason fade into the distance in my rear vision mirror. I’d never felt it before, but instinct told me it was a mix between acceptance and alleviation.

My hands still trembled slightly on the drive back through town, but I assumed it was just leftover adrenaline and shock. It still hadn’t completely dawned on me yet that Liam was going to be okay – that I’d helped save him yet again. I still worried over him, powerless against the urge to glance down at his sleeping form every minute or two while I drove.

At home, I carried him upstairs and laid him on his bed, flicking on the lamp and taking off his shoes and jeans for comfort. I tucked him gently under the sheets and stretched out on the mattress beside him, propped up by pillows and folding my hands over my middle.

I just sat and watched his face while he slept, listening to his heartbeat and the even pattern of his breathing. I ended up staying there all night in the end, my mind racing, replaying the events of the few hours just passed.

There was absolutely no denying how much I cared about him. I didn’t care about people, didn’t give two shits about _anyone_ at all, but I cared about _him_.

I had no idea how to feel about it, much less what to do about it, but it had led me to save his life once again. And if it could make me do such astonishing things, then maybe it wasn’t as bad as I’d spent my life believing it to be.

I’d been scared, at first. In the animal clinic when I tried to take his pain. I’d been scared that it wouldn’t work, that the one person I wanted to save _couldn’t_ be saved. That somehow the world wouldn’t let me protect him as punishment for all the fucked up things I’d done.

That moment was what made me admit to myself just how much I felt for him – because the magnitude of relief I felt when his pain finally started drawing into me, convinced me that I actually had a heart.

And that heart cared for Liam, more than I ever thought was possible for someone like me.

I lowered a hand to his face in the lamplight, letting my fingers brush gently over the curve of his temple, and for once I didn’t fight the curious warmth that spread through my veins when my skin touched his.

A smile almost tipped up on my lips as I continued to stare.

“You’re changing me, Li.”


	7. CHAPTER SIX

For a long while, all I could see was _yellow._

It wasn’t a pleasant yellow like the cheerful Crayola you used as a kid to colour in the sun. This was an awful yellow. A yellow that tried to kill me.

A terrified panic was protracting, slowly expanding inside my chest. I reached out blindly, hearing the crunch of leaves under my footsteps as I tried to grab a hold of something, _anything._ The air smelt of moss and fear and I felt it seep into me.

A deafening crack then ripped through the atmosphere. It pierced my ears with such volume that I flinched, but it was the familiar voice that cried out that tore at my nervous system.

“ _LIAM!”_

Excruciating pain exploded in my right shoulder and I felt myself falling, limbs too shocked to work properly. The pain was _yellow_ , spreading through my veins and weakening me slowly, limb by limb. It tried so hard to pull me down, creating a heaviness inside my body that I wasn’t sure I could fight against. And it terrified me.

It had almost pulled me under, the yellow fading into darkness.

But I awoke.

My eyes snapped open to a blur of movement, frightened screams ripping from my throat as my body writhed under the bedsheets. I was tangled in them, wearing nothing but my underwear and trying as hard as I could to _breathe_ but my mind didn’t quite have control over my body yet.

A figure appeared in the doorway to my right, rushing around the bed faster than lightning and dropping to my side.

And when I saw Theo’s face, my lungs finally opened.

I gasped and wheezed, his palm pressing down on my chest to stop my body from struggling. Traumatised noises left my throat and Theo gripped onto my hand, squeezing and staring straight into me while the tremors settled in my limbs.

“Liam, it’s okay.” He reassured me, his voice level and a little breathless. “I’m here. _I’m here_.”

I closed my eyes.

I let the hand still pressed into my chest ground me, focusing on the weight and warmth of Theo’s skin against mine. I counted the fingers I could feel upon my sternum: _one, two, three, four, five._

“That’s it.” His voice urged softly from my left. “Keep going. Count to ten.”

I hadn’t realised I’d been counting aloud but listened to him. The shuddering of my heart started calming underneath his palm.

“Six… seven… eight…” I continued, opening my eyes to find his. “Nine… ten.”

The fist that squeezed around my heart finally released and I _breathed_ , my chest rising and falling in relief as the weight of panic was lifted from my lungs.

Theo nodded down at me, tired hazel eyes starting to soften as I calmed down.

His hand left my chest to reach for my face.

“Hey.” He whispered, my lashes fluttering shut for a moment when his fingers brushed the hair off my forehead.

I swallowed the last remnants of panic down my throat.

“Hey.” I whispered back.

A smile kissed the corner of his mouth when I replied, and the sight of it made me smile back. His fingers squeezed mine gently - a silent  _I’m proud of you._

“How’s the pain?”

I almost frowned in confusion upon processing his question, but fear tickled inside my chest as I remembered. The full moon. I’d been shot by the hunters Theo had caught stalking me.

I turned to glance down my nose at the thick bandages covering my right shoulder. A dark bruise was reaching out from underneath the dressings, the wound feeling tender now that I’d acknowledged its existence.

I looked back to Theo with a frown of discomfort.

“It’s extremely sore.” I rasped out. “Why hasn’t it healed?”

He glanced down to the injury with a tick in his jawline.

“The wolfsbane that the hunters shot you with,” He started softly, eyes starting to worry. “It was a rare formula; it weakened you. Deaton says it’s difficult to get your hands on. The poison paired with the half-lunar eclipse basically made you just as vulnerable as a human.”

His fingers brushed through my hair again - a feeling I was slowly getting used to.

The gentle touch was entirely out of character for Theo, something you’d never usually catch him dead doing. But it was happening and it was only for me. The familiar warmth spread through my chest for him and the strokes of his fingers left tingles in their wake.

“So how long will I take to heal?”

He lifted an eyebrow musingly, looking to my shoulder once more.

“With enough rest, hopefully a couple of days.” He said, smiling gently at my expression of impatience. “Not even werewolves can heal from gunshot wounds immediately, Li.”

I took a deep breath and nodded, resting my head back into the pillow and replaying last night in my mind. I remembered all of it: Theo coming to find me, fighting me when I wouldn’t calm down, and then when he trapped me against the tree and forced me to find an anchor.

I remembered the way he’d smiled and asked me what I’d thought of. I’d opened my mouth to whisper, _“You_ ,” when the bullet hit.

I closed my eyes at the memory, the muscles in my shoulder twinging with pain. But then I remembered Theo’s arms around me. I remembered the way he’d held me close, remembered the feel of his shirt in my fists and the heat of his throat where I’d buried my face. I remembered the way he’d covered my body with his own, the weight of him over me while he shielded me from the gunfire.

I remembered seeing bright lights and terrified hazel green eyes looming over me. I felt his hands around mine and heard his whispers.

_“Stay with me, Li.”_

He’d taken my pain.

I opened my eyes upon remembering, finding his face and exhaling in shock. He stared right back at me, chest rising and falling with even breaths.

“You saved me.” I whispered at last.

His fingers continued through my hair and he nodded softly in response. I felt my heart squeeze.

“Why?”

His face stressed with devastation and he shook his head.

“Because I can’t lose you.”

If I’d been on my feet, his words would have taken my legs from me.

There was pure concern etched into every inch of his face. His eyes watched me, staring into mine like I was the only person in the world that mattered. It sent my pulse on a rampage, the both of us trapped in a moment of silence.

We looked at each other for what felt like forever, the time slurring by until a part of him finally moved. But it wasn’t in the way I expected.

The hand that still held onto mine lifted. It took me with it, wrists rotating and being pulled further before he let his lips brush against my knuckles. It was soft and tender, the tickle of his breaths warm upon my skin. I closed my eyes before the moment ended, wanting to commit the texture of his lips to memory.

His eyes opened to find mine and his words hummed against the back of my hand.

“Are you hungry?”

I nodded, still a little light-headed at the sight before me. Reluctantly, he gave my hand one last squeeze before laying it down and getting to his feet.

“Hold on.”

I laid in bed and looked around my bedroom while he disappeared downstairs. My notebook still laid open on the study table, beside the laptop. English Lit notes stared at the ceiling and I felt stress start to weigh back down on my mind. This term had been ridiculous in regards to the workload and I was sure missing even one day was going to set me back several hours. It was an extra strain on my already questionable mental wellbeing and I found myself trying to sit up against the pillows.

Theo chose that moment to reappear, his steps quickening to reach my side as he deposited a bowl and a glass of water onto my nightstand.

“Easy,” He warned, hands on my waist aiding the shift of my body weight. “You can’t be doing anything too drastic just yet.”

I pouted up at him, tension rolling from my body in waves.

“Theo, I need to go to school.” I argued urgently. “I can’t afford to miss anything, especially-”

“Absolutely not.” His eyes hardened in stubbornness, eyes glancing over my almost-naked, injured form. “You’re not going anywhere for at least twenty-four hours, your body needs time to heal.”

“You don’t understand, Theo. The workload-”

“Can be _dealt_ _with._ ” He cut me off, sitting upon the bed at my knees. He handed me two aspirin and the glass of water from the nightstand. “Li, we’ll make it work. I’ll help you to catch up on stuff you’ve missed. Right now you need _rest._ Let yourself recover _._ ”

I took a deep breath and let it out with an exhausted huff, nodding in surrender and taking the tablets I’d been given. A bowl filled with fruit was placed in my lap, the berries and melons already sliced into bite-sized chunks.

I looked up at Theo with a surprised smile and he shrugged. The smirk was back and his eyes finally lightened with his mood.

“Eat,” He encouraged, offering a fork to my left hand instead of my right. “Before it eats you.”

My smile widened and I rolled my eyes at the childish warning, taking the utensil and piercing into a square of watermelon. It was cool and sweet and went down without trouble, and I started picking a little faster as my appetite grew.

Theo stayed on the bed beside my thighs, an arm braced on the opposite side where he leaned over them. He was content, comfortable in the silence while he watched the fruit in my bowl disappear. I looked up at him curiously.

“Don’t you have work today?” I asked in-between mouthfuls. It was unusual to see him with so much spare time.

He gave a nonchalant shrug of his shoulder.

“Have the day off.”

I glared across the foot of space that separated our heads.

“You mean you _took_ the day off.” I corrected him reproachfully. “To take care of _me._ ”

The stupid smirk touched his lips.

“That, too.”

I huffed at him.

“You shouldn’t have. I’d rather you didn’t miss out on the hours just to babysit me. I can do fine on my own.”

His eyes regarded me stubbornly.

“I’d rather be here.”

I scowled down at my food, positive that the bastard wasn’t going to budge. I polished off the last few mouthfuls of my fruit before he handed me my phone, exchanging it for the empty bowl in my lap.

“Mason messaged you.”

I swiped at the screen in interest, content and comfortable against the pillows with the warm press of Theo’s hip against my side.

 _ Mason: _ _I hope you’re feeling a lot better this morning, Li. Don’t stress over your schoolwork, Corey, Malia and I will bring it all over for you after school. I know you feel like you need to come but you need the rest even more – just let Theo take care of you._

When I looked back up from the text, Theo’s expression had changed. He seemed to be lost in his thoughts, worry slowly creasing over his brow.

“What’s wrong?”

He looked up at me, eyes hesitant.

“I don’t want it to seem like I’m trying to add more stress onto your life,” He began slowly. “But I can’t get it off my mind, the idea that the hunters are likely to know where you live. I mean, they were _waiting_ for you – in the woods not even a half mile away from the house.”

I kept an open expression for him despite the dread that the information mixed up inside me. There was truth to it.

“I’m not telling you what to do or anything,” He continued, a grimace distorting his features as he looked down into his lap. “But I think it might be a safe idea to sell the house.”

I looked up at him in uncertainty, our eyes meeting.

“You could find an apartment somewhere closer to your friends and the Sheriff’s Station, and it would definitely help with the entire financial situation.” He supplied, his voice soft. He was treading lightly around the topic, he knew how it made me feel. “After selling the house and paying for an apartment you’d undoubtedly still have a mountain leftover. It would take the pressure off your shoulders – you could focus on school without having to worry about getting a job and the money could even get you through college.”

I knew he was right.

The facts were there and the move would definitely be better in the long run. It was a touchy subject however, the idea of letting go of the one place I had left from my old life. It was _home_ , the only familiar place I had left besides the school and I felt nothing but afraid when I thought of starting all over again in someplace new.

Theo was quiet, watching me for a long moment before speaking again.

“I want you to know that whatever you choose, I’m with you. I’m not going anywhere.”

The stress that had been weighing down upon my limbs lifted, just like that.

_I’m with you._

My heartrate quickened, its enlivened throbs audible in the space between myself and Theo. He looked down to the source of the frantic beating and lowered his palm to it. Our skin met and the thrumming grew impossibly faster, reaching up for him from behind my ribcage and begging him to come closer.

A thumb started to smooth gently over my chest and he gave a placid smile as my heart beat for him. I gave a placid smile back.

“Do you feel like a shower?” He asked softly, and I nodded eagerly at the idea of some hot water to burn away the awful memories of last night.

He got up from the bed and pulled the sheets down from my body, taking my hands and helping me to my feet.

I was a lot weaker than I’d expected. My limbs were tender and fragile from the poison and I nearly fell face first into Theo. He was quick to catch me, making sure I was stable on my feet before stepping back a little.

“Here.”

He lifted my uninjured arm over his shoulders, wrapping an arm around the small of my back and taking my weight. He helped me to make it down the hall to the bathroom in one piece.

“This is fucking ridiculous,” I huffed, my head light and body sore with exhaustion before we even made it through the doorway.

He sat me gently on the lid of the toilet, smiling a little at my frustrated pout.

“You just need time to get your strength back.” He reassured me, standing and turning to twist open the tap for the hot water inside the shower. “You can’t stand to be dependent on people, can you?”

I smiled a little and shook my head, a short silence following after.

He soon looked over me with growing concern.

“Are you going to be all right?”

I felt a little hesitant about my ability to manage my own weight on such weak legs but nodded anyway. It wasn’t like I had a choice.

The Chimera left the bathroom, closing the door and leaving me on my own. The glass inside the shower had already fogged up from the heat and I pushed my underwear down, bracing my hands on the toilet below and trying to stand.

My muscles gave out immediately, calves and thighs nothing but tender mounds of dormant flesh. I fell forwards, slipping and almost collapsing to the tiles before I caught myself on the door of the shower last minute.

The movement sent a sharp flare of pain from my shoulder and I cried out, gasping for air and gritting my teeth as it seared.

" _Fuck!_ "

“ _Liam?_ ” Theo’s voice called through the bathroom door. “What the fuck was that?”

I struggled to hold myself up, fingers gripping tight onto the shower door. I couldn’t keep the pained rasp out of my voice.

“I fell. I tried to stand but my legs wouldn’t fucking work.” The metallic smell of blood suddenly soured the air and I wrinkled my nose, glancing to my shoulder to find a red stain soaking through the bandages. _Oh._ “I’m bleeding.”

His heartbeat picked up from outside the door and his voice came through firm.

“ _Fucking hell,_ I’m coming in there.”

My eyes widened and I nearly lost my grip on the shower door.

“Theo, _I’m naked!”_

“I don’t care.”

I tried to turn to conceal my naked form when the door flung open. Theo’s face was hard, worry coming off his body in thick waves.

He stepped closer and reached out, fingers gently peeling the dressing from my shoulder. The wound was a shocking sight, bruised to dark purple. The scarred seam of the bullet hole had torn and the bleeding was consistent, already running down the bulge of my bicep as I trembled and struggled to hold myself up.

Theo stepped back and pulled his shirt over his head, reaching down for the fly of his jeans straight afterwards.

I froze and stared at him, panic and horror and a spike of nervous excitement pooling into my gut all at once.

“What are you doing?” I croaked.

He glanced up at me.   
  
“You can’t even stand up. You’re not doing this on your own.”

My jaw dropped open and my heart threatened to fall out of my mouth.

“You can’t be serious…”

He dropped his jeans and stared me in the eyes, a protective burn fierce in his own.  

“Dead serious.”

My cheeks burned red and I forced myself to look away before my body reacted in the most embarrassing way possible – because naked Theo was much, much hotter than regular clothed Theo. I was already weak at the knees, literally. Letting myself stare at the beauty that made him up would undoubtedly paralyse me completely.

“Don’t stress over it.” His voice came softer. “If it’s really that bad, just close your eyes.”

I took a deep breath and obeyed, my eyes sliding shut and my heart pounding faster with anticipation.

His hands took mine, prying me off the shower door before an arm wrapped around me to take my weight. The breath left my lungs in one overwhelmed rush, the press of our bare bodies together sending fire screaming through my veins as I gripped the broadness of his shoulders for stability.

“Shit.” I whispered in astonishment at the way my insides were curling.

And he knew; his heart was pressed against my chest. I could feel it pounding at a relentless rate, his breaths short upon my lips as he felt the same things I did.

He turned and guided me over the threshold of the shower. I heard the door shut and felt my body shivering – and not because I was cold.

His arms and hands melded into my skin from where they held me, like no matter where he placed them upon my body, they’d always manage to fit in the same perfect way.

The showerhead was adjusted and hot water tumbled over us, mixing upon our skin and running to our feet to disappear down the drain. My injured shoulder was deliberately kept out of the spray and I let myself relax as the shower soothed the ache of my limbs.

Theo’s skin became hot and slippery against mine, wrapped around me and pressed close to keep me from falling.

“Is the temperature okay?” His voice asked softly.

I nodded, eyes still squeezed shut.  
  
“It’s perfect.”

I felt his smile in the atmosphere around us and the bathroom fell quiet, save for the spray of the showerhead and the soft suck of the drain.

One half of his body shifted, and suddenly a handful of hot water was poured over the wound in my shoulder. I flinched and sucked my breath in through clenched teeth as the bullet hole stung, pain burning and flaring all the way down my arm.

“I’m sorry,” His voice whispered quickly, his arm tightening around my back at the pained expression that twisted into my face. He waited a few seconds longer for the ache to subside. “Ready?”

I nodded blindly, waiting until more water was cupped over my shoulder. It came and went, cascading down my arm and dripping from my elbow until the burn subsided to a sting. My heartrate calmed and I bit my lip, daring to open my eyes.

He was closer than I expected.

Our heads were mere inches apart and I blinked the water from my lashes while I watched his face, relaxed and focused. His eyes were soft and attentive, a rare sight as he continued to cup the water over my wound, and I found myself unable to look away.

A few more seconds passed before he looked up and our eyes met. He smiled gently, our noses almost touching before he returned his attention to my shoulder.

“I’ve never showered with another person before.” He admitted into the quiet.

My eyebrows rose a little and butterflies swarmed beneath my ribcage.

“Never?”

He shook his head.  
“Never.”

I watched while he ran a soft finger over the wound in my shoulder, the bleeding finally slowing under the spray of hot water. I almost shivered again under his touch before remembering that we were both completely naked, pressed together from our chests to our thighs, and told myself that I was beyond shivering.

I was growing calmer and more comfortable.

“I’m sorry the first time had to be with me.” I apologised under the water, feeling the arm around my waist squeeze a little.

He shook his head with a gentle smirk.  
  
“I’m not.”

I watched, out of breath as he turned to one-handedly lather a washcloth with body wash.

The sweet, creamy scent of shea butter mixed with the one coming from his skin and he slowly let me go to turn me around. I ducked my head down, closing my eyes while he started to massage the washcloth into my back, gentle as ever around the bullet’s entry wound above my shoulder blade.

I felt him slide a hand over my hip to hold me steady, turning me back to face him before bringing the soap and bubbles to my chest. The washcloth was a ball in his fist as he scrubbed at my pecs, suds and foam washing down over my stomach.

He’d almost reached the top of my ribs when a blunt fingernail grazed over my left nipple.

I froze and my mouth fell open, a gasp leaving my throat before I could think to stop it. My eyes were blue and wide in the reflection of Theo’s and we both went still under the water together. My nipple burned with sensitive heat from his touch, the bud hardening and catching the drops of water that ran from my collarbone.

His eyes seemed to roam my face, both of our breaths heavy before he shook his head wondrously and gaped at me.

“What are you doing to me?” It was barely a whisper.

I was speechless. I couldn’t do anything except stare as the pressure inside my chest exploded, turning my fingertips numb and sending my brain into shock.

A hand rose to my hairline, his fingers smoothing the wet strands back from my forehead and stroking at my temple.

“I’m drawn to you.” He admitted. “There’s something about you that tugs at me, has been since the day I met you. At first I could ignore it, but…”

 _My heart is definitely palpitating._  
  
“But what?”

The gentle finger trailed from my temple down to my jaw.

“I learnt what fear felt like.” He uttered. “Being put in the ground… _broke_ me. It was an endless void of fear and nightmares, the same torturous things happening over and over again and they never stopped.”

A frown fell over my brow at the idea before he continued.

“And when I was brought back up, your face was the first thing I saw. I realised that if I ever went back down there, I’d never get to see it again. That was the first time I truly felt afraid and it was enough to make me want to change. To be _better_.”

I stared while he wrung out the washcloth. He let the soapy water run down my body, lowering his eyes to watch – and I found that I didn’t even care. Self-consciousness was now a minor matter.

“Why me?” I breathed.

He gave me a soft smile.  
  
“Because you’re fierce. And you’re just as much of a psycho as me.”

My lips turned up at the corners and the both of us leaned closer. A smooth pair of hands pulled me in and our chests reconnected.

I watched his eyes lower.

His lips shifted softly as he let himself observe mine, his pupils dilating and his scent thickening with longing.

I felt faint as I dared to glance down as well, properly taking in the shape of his lips for the first time. His cupid’s bow was a perfect, curved v. The upper vermillion led straight down to the corners of his mouth, creating the perfect shape for achieving those infuriating smirks.

The handsome, mischievous upper lip paved the way down to the most delectable lower lip I’d ever looked upon. It was round and full and perfectly biteable. I could almost imagine what it felt like to… to  _kiss_ him.

The breath left me and my eyes opened a little wider. The heat burned hot and deep inside my lower gut and it must’ve made a difference to my scent, because he noticed. His mouth opened behind his closed lips and his eyes shot up to mine.

We stared. And stared, and stared.

Our chests rose and fell against one another, the pounding of our hearts equally as frantic. I waited for him move closer and touch his nose to mine. I waited for the closeness that the butterflies inside me were craving.

But it never came.

Theo’s eyes turned sad before they closed, his hands slowly falling from my sides. He looked distressed and positively pained as he took a step back.

“You’re all done.”

He turned to shut the water off and I could do nothing but stand there, my body shivering with the aftershock from the adrenaline he’d just caused to course through my veins. I wasn’t even sure how I was still standing on my own two feet.

A towel was pulled down from over the shower wall and I stared into the tiles sightlessly while Theo dried me. His hands were tender over my injuries before reaching in and around my waist to wrap the towel around my hips.

He took my hands and guided me out of the shower before drying himself off. I was led down the hallway and sat on the edge of my bed, and he left me in the privacy of my own bedroom to get changed into a fresh set of clothes.

I sat there staring into the floorboards in shock, unable to move for another ten minutes.

 

Mason, Corey and Malia visited after school, as promised.

The three of them were let into my bedroom by a cautious Theo and I was joined on the mattress and greeted with hugs and homework. The three of them grimaced at the half-healed hole in my shoulder while Theo left for the animal clinic to get some more dressing.

I watched his truck disappear up the street with a pang of disappointment, the paranoid part of my mind wondering if he would actually come back.

“How are you feeling, anyway?” Corey’s voice stole my attention from the empty road below.

I nodded gently.  
  
“Better. Did the hunters turn up at the school today?”

The grin on Mason’s face answered my question. He reached into his pocket and opened a folded piece of paper torn from his notebook, the letters and numbers of a license plate scrawled upon the lines.

“We got ‘em, Li.” He said proudly.

Malia put a hand on my arm, brown eyes unwavering.

“They’re not going to get away with what they did to you.” She promised. “We’re going to make sure of it.”

Mason and Corey both nodded in unison, their expressions resolute.

“How’s Theo about it, anyway?” Mase asked slowly. 

My eyes met his and I wanted to say  _gentle._ I managed to swallow it down and shrugged instead.

“Fine. A little shaken up, but he’s been great.” I said instead. “Stubborn bastard took the day off work just to babysit me.”

Mason offered a smile and Malia’s face softened.

“It’s pretty amazing what he did for you.” She admitted soberly.

Corey nodded from the chair at my study table.

“I’ve never seen him look so terrified.” He concurred. “He’s always so cold and emotionless but the look on his face when he carried you into the clinic…”

I closed my eyes as he trailed off, trying not to remember how scared he'd been above me when Deaton pulled the bullet from my shoulder.

“It’s clear he cares for you.” Malia agreed. “I might not have been there but these two filled me in.” She gestured towards Mason and Corey and I looked up to find her face, her brows remorseful. “I’m sorry for the way I spoke about him.” She apologised softly. “I’ve spent so much time hating him for all the horrible shit he’s done and it’s kept me from seeing how much he’s changed. He’s still an asshole but he feels something for you, and it’s obvious that he’d do anything to protect you.”

A small smile tilted up on my lips.

“And this doesn’t mean that I _like_ him,” She continued pointedly, as though to warn me to keep my mouth shut. “And it definitely doesn’t mean that I _trust_ him… but it doesn’t necessarily mean that I still _hate him_ , either.”

Corey agreed with her.

“If you trust him, then I can live with having him around.”

I nodded softly at the three of them, my stomach somersaulting.

“I trust him.”

Mason smiled.  
“Then we’re with you.”

A certain happiness filled my heart that I hadn’t been sure I’d ever get to feel. My friends were trusting my judgement and _accepting_ Theo. They were going to support our friendship instead of constantly undermining it, and the mere idea lifted a load of weight from my back.

I laid back into the pillows while Corey drew my bedroom curtains closed, propping his feet up on the study table as Malia and Mason stretched out on the end of my bed to flick through Netflix.

They ended up deciding on Gossip Girl – and by deciding, I mean that Malia and Mason gave Corey and I no choice.

They were a quarter of the way through the first episode when Theo snuck inside. He wasn’t greeted by glares or sneers from my friends, but rather by brief glances of recognition. He smiled a little as he sunk onto the edge of the bed beside me.

He applied an antiseptic to my shoulder, fingers gentle upon my skin while he listened to the dramatic dialogue from the TV. My wound was redressed quietly before he tipped his chin at me to scoot over.

He stretched out on the bed, our arms pressing together as he settled close beside me. The TV show lulled me to sleep and I dozed off with my head laid upon the warmth of his shoulder. My forehead pressed against the side of his throat and I slept to the aroma that seeped from his scent gland.

 

***

 

He ended up keeping me home for one extra day while my body recovered.

It drove me insane, from the boredom and the anxiety that I was missing too much school, to the fact that he was skipping another day of work just to mind me.

Ever since the full moon and our moment in the shower, he was definitely acting different. He was much less sarcastic, his demeanour turning more serious and gentle. He was even growing into small habits: I’d catch him watching my face and staring at my eyes. He was often asking me how I was and brushing the hair from my face like he was physically incapable of stopping himself.

And I was _also_ incapable of stopping him, falling submissive to the flutters of my heart and the tingles in my skin upon his touch.

Theo was becoming tender and a permanent, worried frown always touched the features of his face. Something had really scared him and it was altering his behaviour drastically.

He also didn’t seem to be getting a whole lot of sleep either, dark purple shadows seeming to sink deeper under the hazel of his eyes more for each hour that passed.

I wanted to talk to him about it – about everything.

I wanted to ask him what the hell was happening to the both of us and why we were making each other feel the way we did, but I couldn’t. I had a feeling that I wouldn’t be prepared for the answer.

Despite this, it was still difficult to keep my mouth shut. He had spent almost every minute of his time by my side. He stayed with me, stretched out against the pillows on the right side of my bed either on his phone or watching TV.

And he no longer sat close to the edge of the mattress. He now sat close by, so close that our arms would press together and our legs almost collided. It was a perfect closeness, not too much and not too little – but soon I found myself _wanting_ too much, and it both aroused me and scared the absolute shit out of me.

We didn't talk about it. 

 

I was finally allowed to go to school on Friday.

Theo parked the truck right in front of the entrance footpath, hazel eyes concerned as I cautiously lowered myself out onto the concrete. I was still a little weak and fatigued but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. I just had to take it easy.

Malia, Mason and Corey stood waiting on the footpath for me, welcoming me back to school with fond smiles and pats to my shoulder. It was a nice reunion until the first bell rang inside the school, and I turned to Theo upon hearing it.

He frowned out the window at me, the reluctance to let me leave becoming harsher in his face.

“I’ll be okay.” I reassured him from the passenger side window. “Promise.”

His expression seemed to fight with his thoughts and he appeared to be torn for a moment. But he surprised me by swinging the driver’s side door open and striding around the front of the truck.

I almost took a few steps back in sudden uncertainty but his body language wasn’t threatening.

He was slow as he reached me, hesitating only momentarily before closing his hands around my waist and pulling me in. 

I was shocked but my arms had a mind of their own, reaching up over his shoulders and winding around his neck while he wrapped himself around me. His arms were warm and pure muscle, wound all the way around my waist and holding me close.

Our heartbeats stuttered against each other, doing that _thing_ again where they altered to beat in sync, to match each other. It was something that had been happening to us lately, seeming to occur more and more as time went by. 

I lowered my head into the crook of his neck, my weary legs almost giving out underneath me at the strength of affection that poured from his scent gland. It filled my lungs and I found myself unstable as my head spun.

“Be careful today.” He murmured into my shoulder. His voice vibrated through my clothing and against my skin, breath warm against my neck. “Please.”

I nodded softly into his jawline.  
  
“I will.”

He held me there for a moment longer, the time drawing on while my friends tried not to stare at the rare display of affection. A few students who passed by gawked and whispered but if I closed my eyes, they would all disappear into mere whirlwinds of dust until only he and I remained.

The Chimera’s arms squeezed me tighter for a split second before he let me go, his expression sombre as his hands slid, deliberately slow, from my hips. The lingering touch left definite tingles behind and admittedly, I felt just a _little_ light-headed.

There was a morose shadow in his eyes when we parted completely, the both of us staring before I forced myself to start backing up a few steps.

“I’ll see you this afternoon.” I murmured to him as I went. “Have a good day and stuff.”

His jaw sharpened at the goodbye.

“See you.”

I stared back for one more moment before turning around and following Malia, Mason and Corey inside the school building. An uncomfortable, pessimistic feeling settled in my chest when I looked back to find him still standing by his truck, alone and watching after me.

The feeling inside my chest was tightness.

It was like a rope inside me, growing taut with the distance I was putting between myself and him and it was _tugging_ , trying to pull me back.

 

 ***

 

We visited the Sheriff’s Station that afternoon, after school. The five of us – Malia, Mason, Corey, Theo and I – waited anxiously in the lobby whilst an assistant disappeared into the back office to find Deputy Parrish.

Inside Mason’s pocket was the piece of paper containing the registration number of the hunters’ silver Mercedes.

We weren’t even entirely sure if Parrish would agree to help us; he was technically bound by law to protect the personal information of all citizens. We just hoped that the attempt the hunters had made on my life was enough to convince him to break the rules.

I sat down in a chair by the entryway, my body exhausted and sore from the activity my day at school had entailed. It was taking a lot longer to get my strength back than I expected and I blamed it on the wolfsbane.

Theo stood right beside me, a hand gentle and massaging against the back of my neck while we waited.

A moment later, Parrish emerged from a door leading to the back of the station. His brows were concerned, bright eyes scanning over the five of us in recognition as he strode closer.

I stood slowly, Theo pressing a hand to my lower back for support as my muscles ached. I almost caught myself leaning into his side.

“I’ve just been told you have an emergency,” Parrish greeted us with alarm. “Is everything all right?”

Mason grimaced beside us.

“It’s not exactly an _immediate_ emergency,” His face twisted with uncertainty. “But it’s a very important request.”

The deputy looked over the five of us curiously before folding his arms.

“What can I help with?”

“In private.” I murmured quietly, and Parrish turned to glance into Sheriff Stilinski’s empty office.

He motioned for us to go inside.

Once the door was shut behind us with the blinds turned down, Mason reached into his pocket to produce the scrap of paper containing the registration number.

“We need to find out who owns this vehicle.”

Parrish barely glanced at the handwriting before shaking his head.

“Guys, I’m sorry but I can’t just hand out names and addresses. It’s rendered an abuse of authority.”

“What if these people nearly killed someone?” Malia argued persistently, her dark eyes defensive.

Parrish only grew more concerned.  
  
“If that’s the case then whomever they’ve put in danger needs to file a report-”

“What if it’s a _supernatural_ thing?”

He ran a hand over his face, a stressed sigh blowing from his lips.

“Guys, is there something you need to tell me?”

Malia, Mason and Corey looked at one another before turning to Theo and I. Theo glanced down at me protectively before explaining.

“The car belongs to a couple, at least in their thirties. I caught them spying on Liam from the school carpark, and again a week later in the supermarket.”

“If you’re concerned about a stalker case then you need-”

“They _shot him._ ” Theo snapped angrily, patience disappearing. “These people, they’re hunters. They tracked Liam on the full moon and they fucking _shot him._ ”

“Theo, it’s okay-” I tried softly, but he turned to glare down at me.

“No, it’s not.” His hazel eyes shone fiercely at me before he turned back to Parrish. “They nearly killed him and I won’t stand by and wait for them to try again. They want him for something and none of us are prepared to let them get it. So either you help us, or we’re leaving to go and track them down on our own - and if someone gets hurt, it's going to be on _your_ head.”

The seriousness in his tone surprised me.

Malia, Mason and Corey looked fairly smug about his honesty but I was more concerned that Parrish was going to lose his patience and arrest him for disrespecting a police officer.

“So they’re hunters,” The deputy said after a long moment. “But they don’t want to kill you. They just want to kidnap you.”

“If that isn’t what I _just said._ ” Theo muttered sarcastically.

I turned to glare at him.  
  
“Shut your mouth before he sets fire to your ass and throws us out.”

He leant down to my ear and whispered over my shoulder.

“My ass is hot enough as it is.”

I planted two hands on his chest and shoved him away, earning a snort of laughter from him before closing my eyes and pinching the bridge of my nose.

_“You’re unbelievable.”_

“So will you help us?” Corey asked, the conversation having gone on without us.

“Please, Jordan.” Malia pleaded softly.

The deputy watched the five of us for a few seconds before closing his eyes and exhaling in surrender.

“I hope you know I could get into a lot of trouble for doing this.”

We nodded enthusiastically in gratitude.

“We won’t tell a soul,” Mason promised. “No one else will know.”

Parrish rounded Sheriff Stilinski’s desk, taking a seat before opening the MacBook and logging into the database. The five of us surrounded him, leaning onto the desk on either side.

He brought up the DMV search portal and entered the registration code. All six of us focused as two names came up on the screen.

“Here. The vehicle is owned by a Mark and Edith Burnett.” He read aloud, clicking on their names to bring up their profiles. “ _Jesus…”_

“What is it?”

“This is insane.” The deputy shook his head. “Edith is a Reproductive Biologist with a PhD in Endocrinology and Mark is a Geneticist with a master’s degree in Microscopic Anatomy. These guys are basically _Einstein.”_

“Actually, Einstein was a Theoretical Physicist,” Mason corrected matter-of-factly. “He looked into the study of matter, energy and force. Not biology and genetics. Entirely different fields.”

Five pairs of eyes turned to stare at him and his hands flew up, eyebrows shooting to his hairline.

“Just saying!”

Theo glared down at the laptop from beside me, his shoulder pressed into mine.

“So they’re anatomists.” He deduced. “They must want Liam for some kind of werewolf experiment.”

A shiver of anxiety ran through my veins and I stood to back away from the desk – as though putting distance between myself and the information on the laptop would make it less real, less threatening.

Theo straightened up and took a few steps towards me, watching at my distressed behaviour from where I stood by the window. Corey continued to read through the information on the Burnett couple.

“Neither of them have any criminal history. No homicides, no assault charges, no _kidnappings_ … not even a driving offence. Their records are spotless.”

“Which means if they’ve done this to other werewolves, they know how to elude the authorities.” Parrish supplied musingly. “Either they have help from someone on the inside or…”

“They’ve left no witnesses.” Malia almost whispered.

The information made me feel sick.

Theo whipped around to face the pack, voice harsh and demanding in the cramped office.

“What’s the address on the registration?” He hissed.

“Let me look.” Parrish sounded distracted as he scrolled.

The silence droned on while we waited and I realised everyone’s heartbeats had elevated. I turned to find them staring in disbelief at the laptop, save for Theo.

“What?” The Chimera demanded. “What is it?”

“The residence isn’t even in this state.” Mason explained, voice light with confusion. “The car is registered in Great Falls, _Montana_.”

Theo’s shoulders stiffened and my eyes widened; Montana was an entire 18 hours away, up near the Canadian border.

It didn’t make any sense.

“If they live in Montana… why have they come all the way to California for Liam?” Corey asked the million dollar question.

The room was at a loss, no one able to speak for a long while.

“It doesn’t matter.” Theo gritted out. “We know they’re in town, so I say we arrest them before they can do any more damage.”

It fell quiet for a split second and I felt hesitation radiate from Parrish.

“We can’t technically arrest them without evidence that they’ve harmed someone.”

He says the words slowly and regretfully, as though they would send Theo over the edge and into a fit of rage.

“Maybe if we took the bullet they shot Liam with and ran ballistics, matched it microscopically to the batch of amunition from their firearm, but-”

“We don’t have an address for them in Beacon Hills.” Mason concluded. “And if we can’t find where they’re hiding, police can’t search them. No search, no weapon.”

“Then get fucking patrols out on the streets!” Theo thundered. “Pull them over and search their car! Demand to know where they’re staying!”

“Actively pursuing them could trigger a panicked aggressive response.” Parrish counselled warningly. “It could put you guys in more danger than you’re already in if they increase the intensity of their attack.”

“So you’re saying we should do _nothing?_ ” Theo spat.

The deputy grimaced uncertainly.  
  
“I’m saying this will take _time._ To even begin an investigation, it needs clearance. I doubt the Department of Justice is going to want to put the money and resources into a pursuit that started on mere suspicion. I know these hunters have already attacked Liam and I _believe you_ , but the only witness was Theo and there’s no remaining physical proof that Liam’s just been shot at.”

Theo ran his hands through his hair, starting to pace while I did my best to find the horizon out the window. _Don’t panic._

“I also doubt they believe in werewolves and hellhounds and supernaturals alike,” The deputy continued. “And I’m positive that no one outside the authority of this very station is willing to present the idea to government officials. The entire thing is going to sound fruitless, whether we add the werewolf part in or not.”

“Essentially, the police are going to be useless against this.” Mason confirmed with a sigh.

Theo’s eyes were covered by his hand, head tipped down and shoulders heaving with concentrated, deep breaths.

“I will try to do what I can to get this looked into,” Parrish promised apologetically. “But I’m not confident we will see results.”

I watched as Theo turned and strode wordlessly over to the Sheriff’s desk, jotting down the hunters’ address onto a sticky note and fisting the paper in his hand after ripping it off the pad.

“We got what we came for.” He muttered as he moved towards the exit. “Let’s go.”

The door slammed against the wall as he flung it open, the Chimera disappearing in an angry blur of grey from his t-shirt. Malia, Mason and Corey looked remorseful, exchanging glances before moving to clear out of the room.

“Thanks for trying, Parrish.”  
“Yeah, thanks Jordan.”

I was the last to leave, turning to face the deputy with a morose expression. He sent me an apologetic look.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help.” He said softly. “I promise I’ll do what I can.”

I nodded and stuffed my hands into my pockets.

“Thank you.”

 

Theo was already waiting in the truck when I reached the parking lot, glaring ahead through the windshield while Malia and Corey waited with Mason around his car.

Malia pulled me into a hug when I reached them.

“It’ll be okay.” She reassured me, although I didn’t quite believe her. “We’ll figure something out.”

It was quiet for a moment before Corey’s face distorted with uncertainty.

“Are you sure you still don’t want to tell Scott?” He asked hesitantly. “I really, honestly think we should. This is getting too dangerous, for all of us.”

I shook my head.  
  
“He can’t know. We’re not messing up college for him.”

The three of them exchanged worried glances, one of them opening their mouths to argue when I started backing up.

“I should get home. I have two days’ worth of schoolwork to catch up on.”

My friends looked sad to see me go, but nodded in understanding anyway.

“We should all hang out this weekend, blow off some steam.” Mason called as I reached the door of the truck. “I’ll text you.”

I nodded and jumped up beside Theo, the air inside the truck filled with frustration and stress. He drove off without a word, the entire trip back home filled with silence and tension.

I closed the front door behind us when we got in, turning to him. He stood in the middle of the living room, his back to me and his shoulders square as he folded his arms over his chest.

“I’m not going to let it happen, you know.” His voice was a soft murmur. “I won’t let them take you.”

My heart stuttered at the implication of his words, at the softness of his voice when he said them.

I let myself whisper something into the room that I’d never admitted to anyone before.

“I’m afraid.”

Theo turned to me, then. His face was all worried brows, sad eyes and a set jaw – and the vulnerability I could see in him in that moment almost knocked me off my feet.

I didn’t flinch when he closed the gap between us.

Rather, I let myself go. My shoulders sagged and my eyes fell shut as his arms pulled me close. I tucked my head into the crook of his neck and, for the first time, I let the fear roll over my body in waves. Powerful, terrifying waves. My breaths grew shorter and my very heart started to tremble, but it was okay.

Because I knew Theo wouldn’t let me fall.

He held onto me, his face buried down into my shoulder. The strong arms that were wrapped around me felt indestructible. I could feel his breaths rustling the baby hairs on the nape of my neck and in that moment I felt so protected, so _home._

Because the words replay over and over in my mind, that he wouldn’t let the hunters take me. And I believed him.

Because I trusted him.


	8. CHAPTER SEVEN

The following Sunday, I took Theo with me into town to look at apartments.

They were close to the town centre, reasonably priced and in a quiet part of town, and the longer we looked the better I started to feel about the idea of moving. I knew it was the next logical step and the safest option if I wanted to ensure that the Burnett couple wouldn’t know where I was.

I had to think about it optimistically – it was a milestone in my life. I was moving out of home and finding a place of my own. A proper one, one that wasn’t haunted by the memory of abandonment and disappointment.

And I was moving out with _Theo._

The two of us were doing this together, and it helped to diminish the underlying sense of melancholy that I felt about leaving my old life behind. Theo made me want a new life, a _better_ one. And he was the promise of a _safer_ one.

In the end, we found the most perfect place.

Two storeys up with the entire floor to ourselves. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, a spacious kitchen, room for a decent sized dining table and even our own laundry. We had a terrace balcony and a view of the forest reserve behind the high school.

The apartment felt good, it felt _real_ and when I looked upon the empty rooms I could see the potential. I could see the way Theo and I could decorate it, could almost smell the way our scents would mix inside the home and it sent tingles down my spine.

So we decided on it.

The next week we had my parents’ house evaluated and it sold in five incredibly quick days. A colossal sum of money was deposited into my savings account, a whole six figures, and I’d nearly fainted before working quickly to buy our dream apartment outright. After that, we started packing.

Malia, Mason and Corey came over on weekends to help with the boxing up and we tried to work at it as inconspicuously as possible, avoiding making it obvious that we were moving. We even disposed of the _Sold_ sign that the real estate had picketed out on the front lawn.

None of us saw the silver Mercedes for almost a month.

I spent the first week of October as a ball of stress, trying to get through packing while keeping up with homework and written assignments. They were all due before the Friday and it was a close call, but I managed to submit them on time.

Finally, all in one day, we made the move.

It took Theo and Mason several trips back and forth, and a _lot_ of arguing over where the couch should go and how high to hinge the TV upon the wall, but we did it. By mid October, we were finally settled in.

We’d bought some of our own furniture and added our own touch to the place, a little bit of me and a little bit of him. It was just enough, and on the cool Thursday evening of October 19, we threw the last moving box into the recycling.

I turned to Theo and we both took a breath, smiling at each other.

“That felt good.” I admitted as I moved to pass him, his hand reaching out for me to high five before we returned to the comfort of our complete, finished new home.

“I’m ordering in to celebrate.” He decided as we passed through the front door, and a smirk curled onto my face as I turned.

I lifted an eyebrow.  
“Let me guess. Chipotle.”

The smile that spread onto his mouth looked good on him, a nod answering my question.

“Damn right.” He confirmed, bringing the menu up on his phone and following me into the lounge room to get my order.

We then sat together in front of the TV, our feet up on the coffee table with burritos in our laps while watching reruns of How I Met Your Mother. My tastebuds erupted with happiness at the long-lost taste of takeout food, a short moan leaving my throat.

Theo turned to me halfway through our dinner, a soft smile on his face as he looked over my body upon the couch beside him. His expression reflected his happiness; he was content and at home in the space we’d built together, something he’d never truly had before.

“I’m so proud of you, Li.”

And I heard all the things he didn’t say.

He was proud of me for managing my stress over the past few weeks. He was proud of me for making the huge decision to sell my parents’ house, and for keeping my head on my shoulders while trying to move out and simultaneously keep on top of my schoolwork.

He was proud of me for _pulling through._

For once, I didn’t ask questions. I didn’t gape at him or freeze at the compliment. Instead, I smiled back.

I sent a soft nod to the Chimera beside me and nudged in a little closer on the sofa.

“I know.”

His arm reached across to settle around my shoulders, fingers finding my hairline to rake through the tresses. I leaned into his touch, lowering my temple to his jawline and picking back up on the TV show before us. I felt content while I let the butterflies roam familiarly inside my stomach.

We still hadn’t talked about our feelings or about the way we were so obviously and undeniably attracted to each other. And I was slowly feeling like I was ready to _start_ to. But I wasn’t sure if Theo would open up, or try to shut me out. So I left us in peace for a little while longer.

Scott texted in that week to check up on me and ask how life had been. I told him about the move, told him how Theo had supported me through the decision but left the drama about the Burnett couple out of the story.

He had called me immediately, congratulating me for taking such a huge step and asking if things were doing okay in Beacon Hills. It hurt me to lie, to skip over the threat of the hunters – but the happiness in his voice was what kept my mouth shut. He sounded elated, relaxed and so much happier than he’d been in a long time.

The hunters hadn’t been seen for almost an entire month anyway, and I was beginning to think that maybe they’d moved on. Theo had been relentless in ensuring my safety and had made it almost impossible for anyone to make a move on me. I wanted to believe that his fierce protectiveness had driven them to drop the pursuit.

 

We went out the following Saturday night to meet with Malia, Mason and Corey for pizza and a movie. The sun was setting earlier and the nights were growing colder as winter neared. Theo stuffed his hands into the front pocket of his hoodie as we crossed the street to the pack’s favourite pizzeria.

My friends already had a table bagged when we walked in, their faces lighting up as we approached. I smiled back as Malia shuffled further down the booth so that Theo and I could slide in.

“I can’t believe you did it.” Mason shook his head in disbelief when our drinks arrived. “You guys actually moved out.”

A smile tilted onto my lips to hear the words out loud; I still hadn’t quite grasped it yet, either.

“Neither can I.”

The three of them smiled towards Theo and I while two waitresses presented us with our orders, the smell wafting up and making my stomach rumble.

“We’re proud of you.” Corey nodded across the table. He looked to Theo as well. “Both of you.”

The joy protracted through my chest and spread a comfortable warmth through my veins, pride for myself and Theo blossoming as I dwelled on what we’d created together. I was _happy_. My life felt good for once.

We sat and discussed the Burnett couple as we slowly ate through our pizzas. I was distracted halfway through when a slice was plucked from my plate, and I turned to gape in Theo’s direction as he stuffed an entire half into his mouth. His eyes smiled down at me before I drove my fist into his shoulder, snatching the slice back while he laughed around the mouthful of food. I felt him smirking at me as I scowled across the table at my friends, picking back up on the conversation and taking a bite into the remainder of the slice.

“Parrish has been keeping tabs on the roads leading in and out of town,” Mason mumbled around a mouthful of pepperoni. “He texted me this afternoon, said he spotted the Mercedes entering from the north just after midday.”

I bristled at the information, dread filling my gut.

“Don’t stress.” Malia interjected reassuringly. “You guys moved at just the right time, while they were out of town. As long as you watch your backs, I’m sure they’ll have a hard time tracking you down.”

Corey nodded.

“Hide the truck, too.” He advised to Theo in addition. “Keep it in the garage and don’t let it be seen from the street. It’ll help to remove any indication from the outside that you’re living in the building.”

I slowly lost my appetite as the warnings and suggestions went on, eyes staring blankly over my abandoned pizza as doubt and concern swirled around in my head. _What if they have a way to look us up? They’ll find us in a heartbeat._

My head lifted suddenly when I felt the touch of a warm hand close over my thigh, just above my knee. Theo’s expression was open, trying wordlessly to comfort me over the news of the hunters’ return. He felt optimistic, confident that we were going to be just fine.

My lashes lowered as I surrendered to his comfort, his fingers squeezing upon my leg.

_It’s okay._

“God, I can’t _wait_ for fall break.” Malia groaned, flopping back against the booth as she abandoned the last two slices of her pizza. “One more week.”

I nodded to agree; I was ready for the well-deserved week off, too. I had three exams left before break started: one for Physics, one for Trig and one for World History. That last one I definitely needed to cram for; the Cold War was a topic that went in one ear and out the other. I’d been unable to retain any of the information from class and was borrowing Mason’s notes to study with.

My friends continued to rave about their excitement for fall break while we basically rolled our fat asses to the front counter to split the bill. Malia expressed her anxiety over the driving test she planned to take, and it made me stop to think.

I was reminded of the time my parents had taught me to drive in the summer before I started at Beacon Hills High. I could distinctly remember my stepdad driving us to a deserted parking lot one Sunday afternoon and sitting in the passenger seat for an hour while I struggled to learn to use a clutch.

Fondness, followed by nostalgia, followed by hurt rolled over me in three suffocating waves.

I missed them. I missed my parents, despite the way they used to nag and scold at me to do my homework and control my explosive anger. The wound was still raw and it still killed deep inside me when I thought about the way they’d just decided to _leave_. The thought that they rendered me such a monstrosity caused my heart to wilt a little in my chest, but I forced myself to move past it. I couldn’t dwell on things that had already happened; I had _now_ to think about.

I let my mind wander back to the thought of Malia’s driving test and tried to picture myself doing the same. With everything going on in my life since Scott giving me the bite, going for my driver’s licence hadn’t crossed my mind once. I still needed to learn to parallel park and could probably benefit from a few extra hours on the road, but wondered if I could go for my test soon.

We reached the movie theatre before I even realised we'd left the pizzeria, pushing through the doors to escape the cool whipping wind outside and standing in the foyer to vote on which film to see.

Malia and Theo both firmly voted for the new Blade Runner film, while Corey and Mason voted for some romance starring Renée Zellweger. The decision rested on my vote in the end, and with an apologetic grimace towards Mason and Corey I voted towards Blade Runner 2049.

The boyfriends scowled with distaste, complaining that a little romance was healthy in everyone’s lives, but Theo and Malia begged wholeheartedly to disagree.

I smiled, standing further back in the ticket queue with Mason and Corey as I watched Malia and Theo rave on about the sappiness of romance films ahead of us. I could clearly hear them mention the likes of The Notebook and Titanic, their heads shaking in mutual disgust before they were called up to the counter.

Seeing them actually having a conversation regarding something they agreed about made a small flutter tickle behind my ribcage.

“You know what he’s doing, right?” Corey’s voice snapped me out of my daydream.

I looked up in confusion at his question.

“What?”

“Theo. Fairly sure he just bought your ticket.”

I gaped, my head snapping up to find the Chimera at the counter, but he and Malia had already disappeared off to the snack bar.

A glare set over my face.  
  
“That bastard.”

Mason smelled amused beside me.

“He’s courting you.”

My eyes widened and I turned to stare in derangement.

“ _He's what?”_

“He’s _courting you!_ Being a gentleman and trying to sweep you off your feet!”

I shook my head in dubiousness at my best friend’s dramatization.

“ _Gentleman_ and _Theo_ should never be used in the same sentence.” I warned in denial. “He’s not even the romantic type – I mean, have you _met him?_ ”

Corey’s eyes sparkled in amusement as the line moved up.

“Obviously you haven’t been paying attention.” He said from beside me. “He’s stayed close to you all night and held the door open for you about three times already. Hell, he even paid for you after dinner.”

My head shot up and I frowned, shaking my head _no_ once more.

“He did _not,_ I paid for mysel…” I trailed off, pausing.

My heart stammered when it came to me. When I realised that I couldn’t actually remember paying before the bunch of us departed from the counter at the pizzeria.

A low growl left my throat and I turned in the direction of the snack bar, my eyes spotting Theo as he spoke animatedly with Malia over by the slurpee machine.

“He’s fucking _dead._ ”

Mason’s hands held my arms and he spun me around to face him. There was an adoring smile across his face and Corey smelled about the same from over my shoulder.

“Li, it’s _sweet._ ” Mason cooed softly. “The guy’s obviously so damn gone for you; just let him spoil you.”

I glanced back towards Theo. Was it that clear to everyone that he had feelings for me?

“But I can pay for myself,” I muttered stubbornly. “And I can hold my own doors. He doesn’t need to-“

“He _knows_ that, and he doesn’t _care._ It’s what guys do – it’s his way of taking care of you and appreciating you. Just let him do it.”

 _“Next, please!_ ”

I was sent one last encouraging stare before Mason and Corey were summoned up to the ticket counter. A sigh left my lips and I roamed away, through the lobby to find Theo.

Malia seemed to be telling him about the Resident Evil film series when I joined them, and I stood to listen half-heartedly while Mason and Corey bought their tickets.

It was when we were finding our way to the correct cinema that he stepped closer, his arm brushing against mine as he curled a piece of paper into my palm.

“Your ticket.” He presented into my ear impishly.

I nudged at him with a roll of my eyes.

“Ass.”

He smirked when he was pushed away, the five of us finding the theatre room and disappearing into the darkness.

Before my eyes could adjust to spot and follow the silhouettes of my friends to our seats, Theo pulled me in an entirely different direction. My back was pressed against a soft, carpeted wall and I could feel his breath tickle against the tip of my nose.

“Is that any way to say thank you?”

The words were whispered into my jawline and I felt my heart jolt when excitement suddenly rolled through me.

“I suppose not.” I whispered back, into the darkness.

The outline of his silhouette was only just visible against the grey of the idling movie screen.

I stifled a gasp when his lips grazed upon my skin, just below my ear. His body pressed up against mine and I felt a pair of hands squeeze at my hips, tugging them into his. I let myself exhale into his shoulder as heat started to stir in my groin, the mere lustful scent radiating from his skin almost enough to send me spinning.

The pair of lips smiled against my skin, dragging slowly down to follow the thick tendon of my throat before stopping where my throat met my collarbone. My hands reached up to grasp at Theo’s chest, fingers fisting his shirt as pleasure started to coil in my gut. I could definitely feel my jeans growing tighter, resisting the urge to whine when the Chimera’s lips pressed down upon the base of my neck.

It’s hot and smooth and wet, and it’s everything I imagined his kiss would be.

I slid my hands up to bury into the thickness of his hair, letting gentlest of whimpers out when a set of teeth snarled to nip gently over the tender skin upon my throat. The hands on my hips squeezed harder before snaking low around my waist, tugging me in tighter and grinding us together.

I was sure my lungs were about to burst when he lifted his head.

My hands fell from his hair, down to the sides of his throat as his forehead met with mine. Our breaths were heavy and hot, mingling together in the few inches left between our lips. His nose nudged against the side of mine and I felt myself go numb.

“Thank you.” I whispered in the darkness, in regards to the movie ticket.

Although he was half-hard in his jeans and just as breathless as me, he let himself smirk against me.

“You’re welcome.” He whispered back.

I jolted against his body when the cinema screen suddenly lit up, advertisements starting to play across the theatre in sudden booms of volume.

His arms slowly slid from around my back, his hands trailing up to where my own palms were splayed on either side of his throat. He slipped his fingers through mine and caressed our foreheads together softly before drawing away, stepping backwards and pulling me with him.

Our hands stayed intertwined, my legs unstable and trembling beneath me as we moved to find our seats. I desperately hoped that no one could see the flushed redness in our faces or the half-swollen bulges of our dicks in our jeans, but knew that there was no masking the aroused chemosignals that were sure to be oozing from us.

My friends glanced up curiously at our belated arrival, both Malia and Corey’s nostrils flaring as our scents washed over them. They said nothing, however, turning back to their popcorn while we settled into our seats.

Theo and I sat close through the entire film, fingers playing with each other gently and heads resting upon the other’s shoulders.

Mason and Corey were doing the same thing beside us, Malia slouched on the end and munching distractedly at her popcorn while she immersed herself in the film plot.

It was a comfortable, cosy few hours that I wished would drag on forever, because the pure happiness I felt when Theo and I were this close was indescribable. It was incredible, and it made my entire body and heart flare with…

_... oh._

I was suddenly frozen against him. I was unable to breathe and my brain was panicking because _this isn’t possible._

 _But yes it was_ , because it was right there.

It was in the way my heart palpitated whenever Theo was around, whether he was smirking or staring or even brushing my hair back with gentle fingers. It was in the way that his presence caused comfort to run through my very veins, and butterflies to swarm elatedly against my ribcage. It was in the way my skin tingled upon contact at his touch, and in the way he stole the breath from my lungs.

It was in the way that his scent could make me feel dizzy, anxious and anchored all at once, and in the undeniable way that an insatiable heat burnt low inside my belly upon _inhaling_ that scent by accident.

It was the way he smirked and the way he scowled. The way he walked and the way he would stare at me. It was the way he mentally supported me, and the way his body took to mine so gently. It was the way he styled his hair and the way he only ever dressed in shades of black or grey, no matter the weather.

It was the way he spoke, the way he drove, and the way he cut his food. It was the way he did his fucking laundry and it was the way that he was _neat_ , and so unexpectedly tidy for someone who’d grown up in a dungeon and then lived inside a truck.

It was also in the way _I_ smirked and scowled, and in the way _I_ stared at _him_. It was in the way I couldn’t breathe when he was close, and in the way I refused to cut my hair – because he liked that I'd grown it out. It was in the way my fingers begged to touch him, and in the way my lips would ache.

It was in the way I talked and moved, in the way I blinked and breathed, and in the very way I saw and thought.

It was in everything about me, and it was in everything about Theo.

I didn’t have the strength to deny it anymore, not when it had presented itself so fiercely, and so very clearly. It had been developing for weeks right under my nose and now was when it finally _hit_ me, head on and with a bright flashing neon sign.

It sent my world crashing down as I knew it, and it changed everything about me.

The walls I’d tried to build to keep everything inside were being broken down and torn to pieces. Everything I’d tried so hard to ignore was suddenly flooding back to hit me with full force in the form of one incredible, colossal, emotional tidal wave.

And it all meant one thing.

_I’m in love with him._

My hands almost shook in his as the realisation washed over me, heavy and suffocating and so entirely unexpected.

My lungs failed to function and my eyes grew wide.

I suddenly felt so faint, and was almost sure I was going to pass out before a hand lifted my chin.

I wanted to close my eyes so Theo didn’t have to see the complete shock in my face, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t close my eyes when I had such perfection looking back at me.

“Liam?” His voice was a concerned murmur, brows worrying gently as he took in my current state. “What’s happened? What’s the matter?”

I shook my head slowly, eyes still wide and not trusting my voice to speak. Not without the words blurting out in a rushed shock of breath.

_I just realised that I love you._

His fingers held my face up, a thumb brushing over my lower lip as his eyes searched me in the light from the film. My breaths came unevenly and my head spun with the threat of a panic attack.

I shut my eyes, focusing on the steady beat of Theo’s heart from next to me.

“Do you need to get some air?” His voice asked in a whisper.

I shook my head immediately, because there was no way my legs were going to support me any further than a few metres.

The arm of the chair was lifted from between us and an arm drew me closer upon the seat, my limbs succumbing to Theo’s as he pulled me against his chest. My legs were lifted over his lap and I let my arms wind around his neck, my face burying into his throat so that the scent that emanated from his skin would soothe my heart and lungs.

His arms held me against him and his head leaned against mine, a hand stroking up my back and down again as though he just _knew_ that I needed calming down.

I kept my eyes closed against his throat for the remainder of the film, drunk on the scent of him and my mind floating into limbo – half of me in a black daze while the other half let in the sounds from the real world around me.

When the credits rolled and the warm glow of lights bathed the cinema, I kept my eyes shut. I was frozen against him in the black world behind my eyelids and I knew I would definitely be sick all over the next row if I tried to stand up.

Theo’s heartrate rose a little in concern when I didn’t move, his hands tightening upon my back as I panted.

I felt apprehension float through the room from our left.

“Is he okay?” Came Mason’s voice. “What’s the matter?”

I could just imagine the three of them, half out of their seats and glancing over with worry at my motionless form upon Theo’s lap.

“Did something happen?” Asked Corey’s voice.

I felt Theo’s head shake _no_ against mine.

“I don’t think he’s feeling well.” He hummed beside my ear.

“Was it the pizza?”

His shoulders shrugged under my arms as he carefully shifted, taking better hold of me. He held my weight with ease as he slowly rose to his feet. I clung to him tighter and squeezed my eyes further shut.

“I’m not sure. I think I’ll just take him home.”

We started to move.

I nuzzled against the warmth of his skin as he carried me up the theatre steps and out into the lobby, my head still in a spinning daze while noises and smells swirled around us. I knew the theatre was bustling with people, finding that I hardly cared if any of them stopped to stare. The protective air around Theo told me that he didn’t, either.

Suddenly the fresh wind of fall blew against our skin and I curled in tighter to avoid the shiver that threatened to shatter through my body.

“I hope he’s not getting sick.” Mason sounded concerned as four sets of footsteps walked down the street from below.

“Werewolves don’t _get_ sick.” Malia corrected, but I knew him all too well.

“Exactly.” My best friend said gravely.

Theo’s fingers smoothed across my skin in circles while he carried me. It made my heart feel a little warmer; he knew something was wrong and he was finding quiet ways to say, _I’m here._

His gait slowed to a stop and I felt him turn towards my friends.

“I’ll text you to let you know how he is.” He promised them, and I almost heard their nods in the air around me.

“Get some rest, Liam.” A foreign hand circled over my back. “You’ve been overworking yourself.”

I nodded against Theo’s neck and heard several soft goodbyes before we were off again. I listened to the asphalt under his feet as he crossed the road to his truck.

It showed how well he could read me when he didn’t even try to put me in the passenger seat. He lifted the both of us up behind the wheel and started the truck, his hands leaving me to steer and shift gears.

“You okay?” He asked softly while he drove.

I let myself relax against his chest and nodded into him.

It was a short drive to our new home – the concept of which sent fondness spreading through my veins. It wasn’t mine or his, but _ours._

He took us inside and carried me through the house, catching me off guard when he took a left in the hallway instead of a right. The smell of him was suddenly stronger in the air around us and I lifted my head for the first time as he pulled the sheets back and lowered me into his own bed.

He helped me to pull my shoes off and undressed me to my underwear, settling the duvet over me and sitting at my side. I was wrapped in the smell of him, coming up thick and sweet from the sheets that surrounded me.

I blinked up at him as his fingers brushed through my hair, patient and waiting for me to feel ready enough to talk. My fingers trembled and my heart fell in fear as the words rasped from my mouth.

“What are we _doing_ , Theo?”

His eyes met mine, fingers stilling in my hair.

My chest grew tight as I expected him to pull away. I knew he didn’t _talk_ about things, but I needed answers to the questions that plagued my mind. I couldn’t keep pretending that the things I was feeling weren’t there.

“I don’t know.” He finally admitted, his face shadowed over in the lamplight from his nightstand.

I lowered a hand to one of his, the one that wasn’t in my hair. My eyes trailed down to watch as his fingers slipped into mine.

“What do you want us to be doing?”

I stared down at our fingers while my heartbeat shook inside my chest.

“What makes us happiest.” I whispered.

I looked back up towards his face, my heart falling to my stomach.

His eyes were sad above me and I felt sick at the idea that after all this time he wouldn’t want the same things as I did. 

He took a deep breath, exhaling softly before looking down to the duvet and resuming brushing his fingers through my hair.

“All I want is to see you safe and happy.” He said into the quiet. “I’ve never wanted anything so much. But I’m… I’m not _good_ for you. I’m not _enough_ , and I can’t give you things that others could.”

I felt my teeth clench as his words ripped through me. My fingers tightened around his.

“How?”

The same, pained expression from the time we showered together suddenly flitted over his face, and it all pieced together. The reason he never kissed me that morning – he didn’t think he was worthy enough. He didn’t think he deserved this.

“I don’t know how to be perfect.” He whispered down to me with a soft shake of his head. “I’ve never experienced this before, I don’t know how to _do_ this. I can’t help but feel that you deserve someone who can give you all of themselves, who can open up to you without it turning into a horror story. Someone who can tell you how they _feel._ ”

My eyes hardened up at him.  
  
“I know that talking and feeling is hard for you. Your life hasn’t been easy and neither has mine. We’re _both_ a little broken, but it’s part of what makes us who we are. And I know that the past isn’t something you’re proud of, but it’s a part of you.”

I lifted a hand to his chest and laid it over the frantic pounding of his heart. His head lowered and he closed his eyes at my touch.

“And I want _every_ part of you.” I finished in a whisper. “The good and the bad.”

He shook his head over me, his soul despairing in the scent around him.

“I’m not perfect, Liam. I’m not _enough.”_

My hand lifted from his heart to his cheek, his eyes snapping open as I touched his face for the first time. The hazel green was bright with fear and shock, his pulse matching mine beat for beat.

I ran a finger over his lips, watching the way they parted to pant under my touch.

“You’re perfect to _me_.” I whispered.

His hand lifted to cover mine on his cheek, the one he had in my hair lowering to mirror the touch.

“You’re so much more than enough. You’re _everything_ , Theo.”

His eyes burned hopefully into mine and I felt electricity spark between our bodies, the very places upon which we touched burning with the chemistry in our blood.

The ropes inside us pulled us closer, Theo’s head lowering to mine.

“Are you sure?”

I felt tears sting at my eyes as I held his face and nodded, _kept_ nodding until his breath gasped out and his hand shook against my cheekbone.

“Yes.” I promised. “ _Yes.”_

The most elated smile spread across his face, actual dimples creasing into his cheeks under my fingers. I smiled back, and he closed his hands around my jaw and pressed our lips together.

The sparks that ignited in my blood as our lips met for the first time sent my heartrate skyrocketing and my nerves exploding.

Our tastes mixed and our kisses were frantic, filled with so much passion and pent-up tension and it was all pouring out. We had craved each other and denied ourselves of this for too many months, and to give in to the feelings in our blood was everything we ever imagined it to be.

Our lips were the most perfect fit, our kisses smacking through the room around us as our breaths mixed and our skin met. The kisses fell into a dizzying rhythm, rising and dipping and sucking and biting and I never, ever wanted them to stop.

But Theo let out a gasp and his lips left mine. He stood up and pulled out of my reach as our breaths heaved and our skin tingled with the sensation of having been joined.

I was about to ask what was wrong when he kicked off his sneakers and undid the fly on his jeans. Immediately I sat up, reaching to tug his shirt over his head while he dropped his Levis to the floor, curling a hand around the back of his neck and joining our lips once more as I pulled him forward.

The bedsheets were yanked from between us and my thighs opened around him as I tugged him over my body. His elbows braced on the bed and the both of us moaned into our kiss as our chests met, his hips lowering into the cradle of my legs and pressing the burning heat of his clothed cock against mine.

His spine curved as he started to grind, our limbs tangled and our tongues meeting as hoarse, overwhelmed noises left my throat. My fingers scraped at his back, nails following every bump and groove of the muscles in his shoulders. He raised his head to break the kiss before diving in to suck my bottom lip into his mouth.

His hips thrust downwards, cock pressing hard against my own, and I cried out, gripping onto him as he sucked his first bruise into my lip. He let it go only to lower to my throat, leaving hot, open-mouthed kisses over every inch of me.

My hands smoothed over the planes of his skin, mind spinning as I finally got to fucking touch him and feel him under my palms. He was all smooth, golden skin and swollen muscle, hot to touch and so, so perfect.

His kisses dipped into my collarbone and down over the swell of my left pectoral before he hovered, lifting his eyes to meet mine.

He looked so fucking gorgeous in that moment, pupils blown out and lips swelling from his kisses as he watched me from below. I nodded down at him, giving him permission to do whatever he wanted to my body. I was his, and he could have as much of me as he wanted.

He couldn’t help but lean up to leave one more kiss upon my lips before sliding down the bed and closing his mouth around my nipple. It was wet and burning as his tongue devoured it.

 _“Uh!”_ The raw cry left my throat as he _bit down._ My fingers dug into his deltoids and my thighs squeezed around his hips. “Theo!”

He lifted his head at my gasps and brought a hand to my face. His thumb brushed over my panting lips before slipping between my teeth. _Here._

So I bit down at the same time he did, breaths hoarse and heavy as he savaged my right nipple in the same way he had done to the left. But it stopped all too soon and his hand left my jaw to trail downwards, his body lifting off me as he reached for the waistband of my underwear.

I watched as his jaw set, eyes turning fierce as his fingers took hold of the seam and he _ripped, tearing_ the material in two and yanking it up to throw it to the end of the bed.

My cock was freed, full and so hard that it hurt as Theo stared down at me. His eyes were predatory as they roamed over my naked body, fingers following where his gaze went.

“You’re so fucking beautiful.” He whispered above me. “So, so beautiful.”

My breath hitched at his words and I reached for him.

“Theo.”

He came to me, leaning down to meet my hands. Our lips joined once more as I tried to wrap myself around him.

His fingers roamed my skin, feeling tenderly over every single inch of me as though he was afraid I’d disappear.

He pressed gentle kisses to my lips, over and over before leaving one over my nose, and then upon my forehead before he stood up on his knees. I helped to pull the underwear down the thickness of his thighs and he kicked them off. His head lowered to my stomach as he left a trail of kisses to my navel, tender and southbound.

My throat seized again when his breath ghosted over the head of my cock, swollen and leaking as I gasped beneath his attention.

He wasted no time in fisting the base and lowering me into his throat, my toes curling and knees locking around his ribcage as he swallowed me with a moan that reverberated into my very spine.

“ _Fuck!”_ I gasped, fisting his brunette tresses and bucking into his throat. “ _Shit!”_

He resurfaced with a sigh, ducking down to lick a stripe from base to tip before wrapping those lips around the head and hollowing his cheeks. The force of his suck sent my vocal cords on a rampage and his eyes closed as he tasted me, lashes shadowing over his cheekbones and sucking me down once more.

He came back up and sunk back down, taking my entire length down over and over in the most devastating rhythm, swallowing me again and again until my hips started jerking.

“T-Theo, _Theo, wait-”_ I stammered as my eyes fell heavier, adrenaline burning through every bone in my body. “I’m… _I’m going to…_ ”

He hummed around my cock again, sending one last shock of heat up my spine that spread from the hairs on my head to the tips of my toes.

He pulled up just before I spilled with a strangled shout.

My nails drew blood in his shoulders as the spurts of cum pooled into my navel, my body trembling violently under his while he stroked and squeezed every last drop out of me. I saw nothing but a blur of black and white spots as I stared to the ceiling, every nerve in my body flaring with electricity.

I was sensitive to Theo’s every touch, my fingers jolting against his scalp as he left a soft line of kisses up my cock. I looked down to him, my breaths shuddering in my chest.

“Fuck.” I moaned in exhaustion, earning a beautiful smile from him below. I reached down from his hair to finger at the dimples in his cheeks, shaking my head at him in awe. “You’re fucking gorgeous.”

He crawled up my body, nudging his nose against my chin before sucking a wet kiss over my Adam’s apple.

“So are you.”

My limbs tingled with the aftershock of my orgasm and I exhaled, reaching towards the bedside table for a handful of tissues. But my eyes snapped open and I looked to Theo when a hand closed around my wrist to stop me.

His eyes leered down at me and he shook his head.

“Leave it. I’m not done with you, yet.”

I made to frown in confusion but… _oh._ My spine tingled again and my heart shuddered anew when I realised what he intended to do.

He stared as I put it together, waiting for me to tell him no.

My mouth hung open and I looked down to where his erection rested, thick and hot in the groove of my hip.

“I’ve never…” I stuttered, words failing me. “... not with a guy.”

He leaned down to nose at my cheek.

“If you’re not ready, it’s okay. I can-”

“No.” I interrupted him, turning my head to steal a firm, confident kiss from his lips. “I want this.”

I heard his pulse quicken, eyes flashing in shock above me.

“Are you sure?”

I nodded, pulling him down.  
“ _Fuck me_.”

His shoulders tensed and his pulse spiked, a low groan leaving his chest as his lips met with my throat.

“ _Fuck,_ Li.”

He crawled back down my body, leaving firm kisses over my skin before stopping above my right hipbone. His eyes lifted to meet mine as he sucked on the flesh, teeth biting down gently as he left a dark bruise behind.

I breathed down at him, feeling my skin flush hot in arousal at the sight of him.

He was marking me up.

He was scenting me and claiming me, putting reminders upon my skin so that his presence could remain on my body for at least another few hours until I healed.

Theo was making me _his._

He left an electrifying kiss over the head of my oversensitive cock and I swore out, reaching down to find his face. Tens of kisses were pressed into my palms before a pair of hands curled around my thighs.

He watched up at me, waiting for permission.

I felt an anxious flare dart through my chest before I took a deep breath and nodded. _I trust you._

He lowered his head, hands spreading my ass cheeks apart before his tongue lapped and dipped over my hole.

I gripped the bedsheets and my eyes flew wide open, the breath moaning from my throat at the sensation that sparked deep inside me. He licked and kissed and sucked at my opening over and over again, tasting me and letting out hums of pleasure while his hands and fingers kneaded deep into the swell of my cheeks. He was spreading me open and licking inside, cries whimpering from my mouth as he stimulated nerves I didn’t even know existed.

I threw my head back and took it, my chest heaving and my cock reawakening as his lips and tongue savaged me. I was wet and slick with him when his head lifted.

“Alive?”

I sent a half-hearted smirk down to him.  
  
“ _Barely._ You’re going to kill me.”

He smiled back up at me and I watched as he reached up to my stomach. His eyes were blazing at me as he pulled a finger through the cum in my navel.

“Just wait.” He promised.

I felt the blood rushing to my dick as he sunk the first finger into me.

My mouth fell open and my brows worried as he stretched me open, his finger pushing deeper and deeper and feeling so foreign inside me. My toes tingled as he drew it back out, rotating before pushing back in.

He did it once, twice, and on the third time I felt my body start to relax. The friction started to feel good, growing hotter and wetter until soon I felt almost starved.

I moaned down at him – _more._

More cum was smeared from my stomach and the stretch was suddenly so much more as the second finger joined the first. My rim burned, the pain just enough to keep my mind intact as the pleasure started to swim stronger inside my belly.

“All right?” He checked from above me, and I nodded enthusiastically. “I’m going to try something, okay?”

“Okay.” I breathed my permission.

The two invading fingers returned, deepening and stretching me before he crooked them, stroking upwards and to the right and-

“ _AH! Fuck!”_

My hips thrust upwards and my cock stood to full attention as the pads of his fingers brushed up against the oversensitive bundle of nerves inside me.

I couldn’t breathe, moans and sobs slipping past my lips as he tortured me. 

_“Again.”_

He smiled up at me, watching my face as he pressed up against that very same spot. My eyes squeezed shut and another overwhelmed whine left my chest as my toes and fingers clenched. 

Cum oozed from my cock, uncontrollable and feeling so fucking incredible as he nudged and stroked against what I now knew was my prostate -  _over and over_. The sensation burned hot through my veins, luring me closer to the edge of another orgasm.

But I wasn’t ready. I wanted _more._ There was an emptiness gaping inside me that Theo’s fingers were only just beginning to satisfy.

I opened my eyes and gasped down at him as the fluid dripped once more from my slit, drooling and jerking onto my belly.

“ _Theo.”_

He looked up from his concentration upon my body, his fingers slowing as my body called out for his.

“I’m ready.” I murmured down to him.

I reached out and pulled on his bicep, his fingers slipping from inside me as he came up for a deep kiss of assent.

“You’re ready?” He confirmed, his clean fingers stroking over my temple.

I nodded below him.  
  
“I want this. I want to feel you.”

He sat up to glance around the bedroom, swearing and grimacing in disappointment.

“Fuck. I know you want this, but I don’t have a condom and-”

“I don’t care.”

He paused and gaped down at me.

“Do it.” I demanded, my eyes level on his.

“It’ll be _messy_ , Liam.” He warned me with a lift of his brows. “Really messy. Are you sure?”

I pulled him down for one last kiss.

“Ask me that again and I’ll fucking hit you.”

He grinned down at me, smoothing a thumb over my lips before pressing a kiss to my forehead and brushing my hair back affectionately.

He stood on his knees and dipped his fingers into what remained of the puddle of cum from my belly. He stroked himself with it, the mere sound of its wetness making me clench with anticipation.

He was _thick,_ hard as a rock. I knew it would take some adjusting to but I needed this, needed him – needed _us._

He cleaned the last of the cum from my skin and reached down to finger it into me, my hips pushing and bearing down against his touch eagerly.

 _“Theo.”_ I whined in impatience.

“Okay, okay.” He soothed, twining my thighs around his waist before lining himself up. The press of his cock against my hole made the fire in my groin flare hotter. “Ready?”

My heart trembled as I waited underneath him, nodding.

I held my breath as he thumbed the head in. I felt my rim open around him and bit my lip as he deepened. His girth continued to stretch me, stretching wider and wider as he got thicker and thicker and I took it until it burned.

I gripped his arms with a groan from through my teeth and he stopped.

“I’m sorry,” He whispered against my forehead, stilling his hips to let me get used to the burn before sinking any deeper.

When my fingers finally loosened from their tight hold around his triceps, he sunk his cock the rest of the way into me. His balls pressed against my ass and my mouth fell open as he hilted. I was breathless, lungs frozen as I felt him. _All_ of him.

The feeling of him inside my very body, filling me to the rim, felt so completely incredible.

My skin tingled and my heart tried to reach up for him from inside my chest, short huffs leaving my throat as my emotions overwhelmed me. I held his face as he moaned, hips rocking into me as he tried to bury himself deeper, closer.

His forehead lowered to mine and we shared a full, shaky kiss.

“Fuck,” He whispered against my lips as he slowly drew out of me. “You’re _tight._ ”

I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and held him close as he drove back into me, a tortured whine moaning from my lips.

“ _So full_ ,” I managed to gasp as his hips started fucking into me, picking up a steady pace.

His cock filled and stretched me with ease, the cum from my stomach helping him to slip deeper and deeper.

“You’re filling me up.” I moaned against his throat. “You’re making me whole and I never want it to stop.”

He cried out against me, muscles tensing under my hands as his hips rolled into me even harder. Our skin melded together, hearts beating in unison and breaths mixing in the air as the pleasure that seared inside us burned even hotter.

The feeling he was creating inside me was something I was positive no one else could ever begin to make me feel. I felt complete, joined with him in every way possible and I was sure in that moment that my body had been made for his. We slotted together like two halves of a greater whole, and the happiness it made me feel was so powerful that it brought tears down my cheeks.

Our moans and cries echoed through the apartment, our pleasure and affection rebounding off the walls as his hips fucked into me at a relentless, firm, determined pace. The headboard of the bed thundered against the wall behind us but we didn’t care. We were an _us_ and we were _together_ – and that was all that mattered.

_Slam, slam, slam, slam, slam-_

_“Hah… Liam…”_ Theo tried to say, his voice barely recognisable with how hoarse it sounded.

His forehead pressed to mine and I clung to him, our eyes meeting and gazes holding.

_Slam, slam, slam, slam, slam, slam-_

“Li… _I love you.”_

My eyes widened and I struggled to breathe, my heart absolutely exploding inside my chest with pure euphoria. The tears fell, my rasping cries and shouts calling through the house for him as he said it over and over again.

“I really fucking love you. _I love you, Liam. I love you.”_

 _Slam, slam, slam, slam, **slam, slam, slam**_ -

His hips started to stutter as he grew closer and closer to the edge, the both of us trembling so violently that we could barely speak. My fingers managed to find his face, the pressure rising inside both of us as we prepared to burst.

 _“I love you.”_ I gasped back. Theo’s eyes squeezed shut and he yelled out urgently as we started to cum. “ _I love- FUCK!”_

We fell together.

Our stomachs smeared with sticky heat as I came between us for the second time.

Theo slammed as deep into me as he could go, his head burying into my shoulder as all of him spilled inside. I felt every gush and shot of his cum inside me, every throb of his cock against my walls. I felt every twitch of his muscles against mine and every breath his lungs expanded with.

We were both too overstimulated, our hearts racing way too fast and our breaths much too frantic. We both slumped against each other as we blacked out, heads spinning and bodies recovering as we floated together in that space between awake and asleep.

We must have laid there for hours, bodies tangled together and Theo still buried deep inside me – and it was perfect. I never wanted him to leave.

We barely stirred in the lamplight for what felt like an eternity, not until we properly resurfaced. Our heaving breaths had calmed down to soft rises and falls of our chests against one another.

When our eyes finally slipped open to meet, identical lazy smiles curled onto our lips. Theo tipped his chin up to join them, the soft, languid kisses we shared being the only movement we made. Neither of us felt the need to move, and we didn’t. We laid in the mess we’d made, cum and sweat and ruined bedsheets being all that surrounded us.

Our scents mixed and soon neither of us had an individual smell. Theo and I smelled like an _us_ , and it was absolutely perfect. The joy that spread through my heart seeped out of my chest and into his, and he held me closer with heavy, lazy arms.

We both sighed, our foreheads connecting and lips brushing over each other one more time before the exhaustion took over us.

And we let it.

Our souls twined together in the night while we slept, bodies tangled and hearts beating for one another as the waves of bliss picked us up and carried us off.


	9. CHAPTER EIGHT

The world came back to me in sounds and smells before my lashes slowly blinked apart to white bedsheets and morning sunlight.

My body was lax, sunken into the mattress by the weight of another person on top of me. My muscles felt spent, something inside me feeling a little raw – and then I remembered. In a few short seconds, the memories came flooding back. The love washed over me as I relived the night before in my mind and I gently turned my head to sight Theo’s dozing features upon the pillow at my shoulder.

My legs were still lazily bound around his, opened around him while his hips and chest laid over mine. He was draped over me in the exact position we’d fallen asleep in; we hadn’t moved one bit. I felt the itch of dried fluid over our skin and the smell of sex was extremely thick around us, but I was content.

I lifted a hand to smooth gently over his face, an elated flutter still rising in my chest at the idea that I was _touching_ him, that I was allowed to touch him. I watched his lashes flinch as my fingers touched upon his cheekbone, hazel green slowly focusing on my face with a deep breath to his lungs.

I waited underneath him, waited for him to snap up and flee from the bed. Waited for him to put the walls back up around his heart and tell me last night had been a mistake.

But his lips curled into a slow, sleepy smile – and my heart swelled with pure joy.

The hand he wasn’t laying on slid up my chest, his fingers slowing to splay across my jaw. His thumb brushed at my lower lip and I leaned into it. His smile grew a little wider.

“Good morning.” He murmured, and immediately I decided that freshly-woken Theo was my favourite dulcet tone. His voice was a deep rasp that both relaxed me and sent arousal shooting to my lower belly.

I stared back at him, in awe underneath his fingers.

“Is this real?” I whispered into the Sunday morning quiet. The birds chirped and fought in the trees out on the street, but no cars or humans could be heard.

Theo’s eyes smiled with his lips and he gave a slow, pleased nod.

“It’s real.” He whispered back, and it sent my heart diving into a pool of pure euphoria.

He wasn’t running away. He wasn’t closing himself off or telling me he regretted what we’d done. He’d meant what he said last night: _Li, I love you._

I smiled back at him, finally. I tilted my chin up, closing my eyes and waiting, and he took a mere second before leaning in to join our lips. The kiss was full, affectionate and tasted of pure happiness – something that had been lacking in both our lives for as long as we could remember. It was like now that we had each other, none of the pain mattered. We were _us_ and it was all we needed.

He shifted atop me, stirring before lifting himself on hands and knees to hover over my body. He looked down over my skin, smiling to find that the hickey he’d left over my hipbone had stayed. I smiled at it, too – I _wanted_ to be marked up by him. I wanted it to be a visible reminder that he’d been there, that it _had_ been real and that I was his.

“How do you feel?” He asked softly above me, those hazel eyes shining into mine with care.

I shifted a little on the mattress, stretching out my limbs and feeling the tension tug inside me once more.

“Mm, good.” I murmured, relaxing into the bed. “You?”

He smiled and nodded, an eyebrow raised with character.

“Pretty damn good.”

I grinned up at him before he dipped back down for another kiss, our lips unable to stand any longer than a few minutes apart. I sighed into him, contentedness rolling through me before he rose and pushed back the bedsheets.

He stood from the bed, morning wood and all, and reached his hands out to me.

“Can you sit?”

I took the offered hands and hauled myself up, wincing and letting out a short cry when the tension inside me turned to a flare of heat that I now realised came from inside my ass. I pressed a hand to my lower back and exhaled a curse while he smirked down at me.

“Sure you’re good?”

I shook my head up at him.  
  
“Maybe just a little tender.”

An adoring laugh left his throat and he slowly tugged me to my feet, hands kneading the supple mounds of my cheeks as though it would soothe the pain in my hole. I pushed at his chest, shoving him back with a playful smirk of my own and received a stinging slap to my ass as I turned to head for the bathroom.

He joined me in the shower, pressing close under the water and letting his hands roam over my body from behind. The hot water washed away the dried-up cum from our skin and soothed the gentle ache of our limbs.

“You’re beautiful.” He whispered into my neck, arms holding me tighter to his front as he left a soft kiss over the swell of my right trap.

I let my head tilt back to rest upon his shoulder, leaning into his embrace with a breath of comfort.

“ _You’re_ beautiful.” I whispered back, over the spray of the water.

I felt a smile against my shoulder.  
  
“I suppose together, we make perfection.”

I smiled back, turning to let him reach my lips.

“That’s the corniest fucking thing you’ve ever said.”

A laugh exhaled against me and we kissed, lips wet and sliding together under the spray from the showerhead. I ground back against his hips, letting his still-hard morning wood press in to slide between the cleft of my cheeks.

His hands tightened, sliding down to my hips to hold me still while a short groan of warning hummed against my mouth.

“Can’t do that unless you mean it.” He murmured as he pushed forwards to grind into me. “Restraint won’t come easy around you; not now that I know how incredible you feel.”

A breath left my lips as he pressed a kiss to my scent gland, my body pushing back against his grinds.

“Who said I didn’t mean it?”

Fingernails dug into my waist.  
  
“ _Fuck_. Li, you’re still tender. Let yourself recover first.”

“I don’t want to.”

I turned to press a firm kiss to his lips before leaning forward, spreading my legs and arching my spine as I bent over for him, hips pushing back against the sliding thrusts of his own.

A groan of restraint and desire echoed behind me and I felt his hands slide to grip at my cheeks.

“You’re going to fucking kill me, bending over like that. Are you _sure?_ ”

I turned to glare at him with a roll of my hips against his cock.

“What did I say about asking that damn question?”

A dismissive grunt was his only response before he took hold of his girth and immediately sunk into me.

I couldn’t restrain the throaty, open-mouthed moan that left my lips at the tender stretching of my rim around him as he filled me much quicker than before, but felt myself leaking, relaxing in relief at the feel of him inside me again. It was something I was sure I’d never grow bored of, feeling the fullness of him deep in my belly as he hilted with a press of his hipbones to my cheeks.

I shifted on my feet again before bracing against the wall, ducking my head down and concentrating on the push and pull of my rim as he started to fuck in and out of me. He didn’t start slow this time, his thrusts picking up a steady pace almost immediately – and it felt _good._ The tenderness dissipated into a tingling warmth and I felt every inch of him as he drove into me.

My fingers gripped at the tiles and the water from the shower ran down my chin, short cries and moans leaving my throat the harder Theo started to thrust.

My name left his lips in the form of breathless groans, and his right hand left my ass cheek in search of my own hand. It slid up my ribcage and he tugged at my upper arm until I surrendered it to him, our fingers lacing together and my balance being thrown off as he fucked harder, hips snapping into me faster.

“ _Yeah,”_ I panted against my shoulder for him, forcing back against each thrust to bring him as deep as possible.

It was encouragement enough to keep going, his hair falling into his face as he worked. The sharp smacks of our skin together echoed through the bathroom, our low groans and mewls for each other rebounding off the tiled walls and driving us closer and closer towards the edge.

My fingers squeezed in his upon my hip and he angled his thrusts, searching and feeling and experimenting before _slam!_

The cry left my lips and I squeezed around him as the head of his cock rammed straight into my prostate, desperate pleas leaving my lips for him to do it _again._

 _Again, again, again_ , and he did.

I could barely hold myself up, but I did for him. I forced my legs to support my weight so he could finish me, destroy me with the well-aimed fucks of his hips and the gasps of my name from his lips.

His thrusts stuttered and I held on for him, holding myself together and waiting for just those last few strokes before he started throbbing – and we both let go with yells and moans into the cubicle that surrounded us. He spilled into me once more, his cum burning much hotter than the water that tumbled over our bodies, and I whined a _yes_ at the feel of it, grinding back against his pelvis to soak up every inch of him.

“Li… _fuck._ ” He gasped from behind me, letting go of my hand to smooth over my hips and back. “You like it messy, don’t you?”

I managed a fucked-out grin, slowly straightening up to fall back against his chest. His hips rolled slowly into me, coaxing a low moan from my throat as his cock slid through the hot mess he’d made inside.

Exhausted sighs left our lips and I bent an arm to hold the back of his neck as he spooned my body, the both of us swaying gently under the water as our heartbeats slowed and our limbs ceased their trembling.

“Hungry?” He murmured into my throat, earning the most enthusiastic nod I could manage.

“ _Yes._ Please tell me we have bacon.”

A laugh hummed into my skin, followed by a kiss and a nod.

“We do.”

We finally got around to actually bathing, lathering each other in soap suds before drying off and leaving the bathroom on slightly wobbly legs.

We cooked together in only our underwear, one of us spooning the other as one fried eggs and the other did the bacon. It was sickeningly sweet and domestic, but it was entirely perfect. The pure, wholesome rush of happiness flowed through our veins and it never left as long as we stayed close. I was certain that this was what I wanted for myself, for the rest of my life.

If we could stay this happy together forever, my life would be complete.

We sat together on the chaise out upon our balcony, devouring the bacon and egg sandwiches we’d made in a tangled heap of limbs. I was comfortable between his legs, my back against his chest as we ate, drank orange juice and looked out upon the forest behind the school. Traffic picked up on the roads below as people set off to enjoy their Sundays and we watched them all while we enjoyed ours, both in the exact place we wanted to be.

We stayed out there for over an hour, just relaxing and being together in a comfortable silence while the town worked below. It felt very much like afterglow. We were placid and gentle together as we basked in the newfound love and affection for each other, content to just sit in it and _feel_ as we let ourselves be the _us_ that we’d deprived ourselves of for so long.

Eventually, though, one of us was bound to need the toilet. So we stirred and separated, one of us peeing and the other depositing dishes into the dishwasher. The rest of the morning was pleasant and quiet, as a Sunday should be. We watched some TV before I disappeared to my bedroom to cram for my exams in the upcoming week before fall break.

Theo could only remain on the couch alone for thirty minutes before he came to join me, lifting me entirely off my seat before taking it for himself and settling me over his lap. He’d turned into one huge cuddly creature and I _liked it._

I let him wrap his arms around my stomach and watch over my shoulder while I revised.

At noon he had to leave for work. It took him a ridiculously long time to say goodbye, hanging by my study table for at least fifteen minutes before I threatened to shove him out the door myself. He’d rolled his eyes and planted a firm kiss on my forehead before tearing himself away from me and leaving the apartment.

I smiled to myself in the privacy of our home, listening to the garage doors open on ground floor and the engine of his truck as it faded down the street. I felt incredible.

 

 ***

 

The last week of school before fall break passed by surprisingly smoothly. Classes were laid back and stress was at its minimum as students anticipated their entire week off before returning to start on all new study topics.

Mason and Malia were a little frantic about their upcoming exams but Corey and I were relaxed. Maybe it was because we were both too wrapped up in thoughts about our significant others to bother feeling stressed about a couple exams.

As though before wasn’t enough already, I now thought about Theo all day every day. He was in my thoughts when I walked through the school doors in the morning, and he was in my thoughts in the afternoon while I waited for final bell to ring so I could escape the building to see him.

We’d become so much closer over that one weekend and were basically inseparable when school or work wasn’t in the way. We’d immediately grown into the routine of sleeping in the same bed, neither of us able to sleep unless we were tangled up and wrapped around each other. Whose bed it was depended on where we ended up at the end of the night, but it made no difference; neither of us had looked so well-rested in our lives.

I felt relaxed and content with my life, my mood unwaveringly positive despite the upcoming full moon. It was to fall on the start of fall break and although I could definitely feeling it coming, I was nowhere near as tense or stressed over it as I’d been before. There was a constant scent coming from my skin, remnant from having Theo wrapped around me at night and during the free time we spent together at home, and it had basically sunken into my blood. Calmness flowed through me at a constant ripple and it was blatantly noticeable.

I was in the library during lunch on Wednesday when Mason asked me about it. I was there with him, Corey and Malia while they crammed last minute for our World History exam next period and was returning my borrowed books on the Cold War when he cornered me.

“So.” He slid up beside me, voice low in the shelving around us. “You and Theo.”

My heart jumped at the mention of his name and I struggled to cover up.

“What about us?”

I felt my best friend’s inquisitive smirk in the air around us.

“Liam. Seriously.” He said knowingly. “Everyone’s noticed the improvement in your mood. Literally nothing has annoyed you all week.”

I turned away to move further down the shelves, letting the smile spread over my lips in the dark at the mere idea of Theo improving my mood. I tried to keep it at bay when Mason continued.

“And I’m not a damn werewolf with super smell or anything, but even _I_ can smell him on you. You’re saturated in him.”

I let out a sigh, giving in to the pull of my shoulders and relaxing them as I turned to face him. I had no more books left to return and I was awful at pretending to be busy. I knew Mason could see right through me; not only was he my best friend, but he was in a happy relationship. I knew he saw it in the way I acted, and smelt it on my skin.

His eyes watched me knowingly.  
  
“You slept together, didn’t you?”

Even though he couldn’t hear my heartbeat spike, he saw it in my eyes. I bit my lip, knowing I didn’t even have to answer.

“So he admitted his feelings for you?”

I nodded softly in honesty.  
  
“Something like that.”

Mason’s hands rose to cover his face and he took a step back.

“ _Liam._ You mean he _fucked_ his feelings into you, don’t you?”

I exhaled a laugh at the way he grimaced and put a finger to my lips.

“Keep it down. Malia would flay me if she heard.”

Mason shook his head, a smile tilting up on his lips.

“The entire _school_ would flay you if they heard.” He huffed before looking up at me. “It’s clear how happy you are, Li. You’ve changed, improved. You’re completely different in all the best ways and I’m really glad. You look _healthy._ ”

I smiled back at him.  
  
“Thanks, Mase.”

The bell for fourth period cut through our silence and the scraping of chairs commenced as students roused to move to their next classes. Mason and I shared one last amicable glance before leaving the bookshelves and returning to where Corey and Malia were stuffing notes into their bags.

We left the library together in the direction of our History classrooms.

“Ready to ace this exam?!” Mason cheered positively in encouragement.

He merely received two incoherent, grumbling responses from Malia and Corey, and an amused grin from me. He shrugged after the effort and we wished each other luck as we separated to our respective classrooms, Corey disappearing into one while Mason, Malia and I disappeared into another.

 

The happiest part of my day was when Theo and I got home.

We changed into fresh, comfortable clothes and he asked me about my History exam while we made sandwiches. Despite my lack of interest in the topic of the Cold War, I was sure I did fairly well. At least a B.

He smiled and nudged at my side: a silent, _I’m proud of you._

Afterwards we curled up together on the couch. Theo laid on his back and I laid on my side between his legs, head on his chest while I munched at popcorn. A rerun of The Big Bang Theory was the best thing on, so we laid and watched it while Theo’s hand stroked through my hair.

“Hey.” I murmured after half an hour, catching his attention.

“Mm.” He responded, looking down to me from the TV.

“Mason knows. About you and me.”

His hand never stopped in its soft strokes over my head. A small smile lifted on his lips and he nodded.

“How’d he guess?”

“He could smell you on me. I basically reek of you.”

His stomach lurched underneath me with a silent laugh, huffing through his nose.

“I suppose I’ve made my claim on you fairly obvious.” He hummed. “Did the others find out, too?”

I shook my head on his chest.  
  
“Just him. Are you mad?”

He shook his head back, turning to look down at me.

“No.” He uttered, moving to stroke his fingers over my temple. “The whole world can know. You’re mine.”

My heart fluttered and I stared up at him.  
  
“So… we’re actually dating?”

He leaned down to kiss my forehead with a soft smile and I closed my eyes in contentment.

“You’re stuck with me.” He determined confidently. “You’re mine and I’m yours, and you’re never getting away from me again.”

I couldn’t help the elated smile that curled onto my lips at his words, my popcorn forgotten on the coffee table as I reached up his body to kiss him. He kissed back with ardour, a hand smoothing over my back and following my spine before he broke the kiss and shifted up from underneath me.

“Mm,” He hummed suddenly, standing and tugging me up from the couch. “Come with me. I want to show you something.”

I stood and stared in confusion.  
  
“Where?”

“In the shower.”

“In the _shower?”_

He turned to smirk at me and I suddenly understood. A curl of heat unfurled inside my belly and my mouth made an  _oh_ , my eyebrows quirking and an identical smirk spreading onto my face.

I let him tug me down the hallway at an urgent pace.  
  
“Uhuh.”

 

***

 

Theo’s POV

 

The full moon fell on the Sunday, beginning the week Liam had off school for fall break.

I woke that morning in a sweat despite the cool draught coming from the window above us, soon realising it was due to the furnace my beta had turned into overnight. His skin was hot to touch, the fever all thanks to the time of month.

He woke with a scowl of discomfort, grunting at me as he rolled away to cool down. I knew what to expect from the full moon now, but he wasn’t nearly as cut-off towards human interaction as last time. He answered my questions when I asked them and leaned into my touches when I stroked his skin. He resisted the aggravation and anger that clawed at his wolf on the inside.

What had happened on last full moon was still fresh in my mind, and the idea of leaving him home alone to go to work caused a protective flare to ignite inside my gut. My Chimera growled an immediate _no_ , and I agreed with him. So I roused Liam gently from bed, made us breakfast and took him to work with me.

He sat slouched in a booth in the corner of the café, relaxing and watching films through earphones on his laptop over a warm mug of white chocolate mocha – a beverage I’d recently discovered as his favourite coffee order.

He sat placidly through my entire five-hour shift. He was a little distressed and his heartrate hadn’t slowed since midnight last night, but he was still much calmer than I’d ever seen him on the day before a full moon. As my shift wore on I noticed his eyes starting to darken in exhaustion from the energy his restraint had drawn out of him, but I was proud of him for keeping so calm.

Something in him had changed; he’d found something to make managing his anger much easier, and I had a feeling that that something had been me.

The things it made me feel were odd, indescribable. All I knew was that they were a _good_ odd, warm inside my chest and drawing me to him even stronger than before.

On instinct, I concluded that it was love I was feeling; I’d felt it around him for over a month now. I was slowly growing accustomed to the sensation as it was returning more and more often as the days went by. Every time I looked at him, touched him, held him – I felt it. Every time I made love to him – I felt it. Every time I breathed in his damn scent – I felt it.

The only frustrating part about loving Liam so damn much was my inability to say it. I wanted to tell him, I wanted him to hear it every day that I appreciated him, that I cherished his existence and that I _loved him_ , but my throat closed up on the words each time. I knew he already knew because I’d managed to get it out once before, but I wanted to tell him again. I was just afraid that it would be too much for him, or that the words would lose their meaning.

I told myself it was just paranoia I was feeling, but it was hard to shake such fears when Liam was the only, _only_ person I’d ever felt love for in my entire life. I wanted to keep him, wanted to stay with him until life faded away. I didn’t want to imagine what it would feel like if somehow I forced him away.

 

After my shift that afternoon, the beta laid on my bed while I packed us an overnight bag. I wouldn’t tell him where I was planning on taking us or what we were doing, only that he would like it.

I watched as he tossed his head in the other direction, just a bit irritable.

“The full moon isn’t really a night to take me on some romantic trip, Theo.”

I felt my heart ache a bit at his reluctance, but told myself it was just the full moon.

I approached him where he laid on the bed and smoothed a hand over his forehead, brushing away his hair to cool his skin. I leaned down to press a bunch of gentle kisses to his lips to relax him.

“Just trust me.” I murmured against his nose. “Please.”

He nodded apologetically underneath me and let out a strained breath. I gave him one last kiss to the forehead before getting up to finish packing what we needed. By three that afternoon, we locked up the apartment and jumped in the truck.

I drove us north.

We stopped halfway to our destination for an early dinner, before the sun set so that Liam could stomach something without growling it back up his throat under the slow rise of the moon from through the window. He managed to keep his cool while he ate, ignoring the eruption of sounds around us from inside the restaurant.

We continued on our way north, the entire trip taking a solid six hours. Upon arriving at our destination, I smiled across at him as he leaned out his window to read the sign we passed.

“It’s called McCloud Falls.” I told him as we entered the drive. “It’s a waterfall with three lookout sites, Malia told me about it. I researched on it for like three days before I knew it would be the perfect place to take you on the full moon.”

“How is a waterfall lookout going to help me on the full moon?”

“You’ll see.”

He sat back against his seat and watched out the windshield as we followed the driveway past a sign named _Upper Falls_. The track dipped downwards a little and I stopped the truck in the deserted parking lot of _Middle Falls_.

We jumped out and I slung the overnight bag over my shoulder while Liam glanced around, locking the truck and leading the way.

“C’mon.”

We followed a bitumen footpath up a slight incline, passing a sign that read _Middle Falls Overlook Trail_. The full moon lit the way in the 10 p.m. darkness and Liam and I walked for a few minutes, straining at the steep climb up the cliff before the waterfall finally came into view.

We stopped to catch our breath and looked across at it from behind the railing, the roar from the water reaching us at the path. It was a large expanse of space, the cliff beside us a fifteen foot drop down to the slope that led a rocky path to the pool. The water rushed towards an active, shallow river which ran down to Lower Falls.

Liam looked at me, blue eyes stressed under the moon.

“I’m seeing it, and I still don’t understand.”

I took his hand and pulled him towards the railing with me.

“We’re not there yet.”

His eyes widened and he watched with confused horror as I swung over the wooden railing, dropping our bag to the ground below and bracing on the edge of the fifteen foot drop.

“ _Theo,_ what the hell?” He hissed, grabbing for my hands as I let go of the railing.

I landed below the short cliff side with a huff and straightened up, beckoning him down. He stared down at me with a deranged expression, looking up towards the waterfall before slowly following my actions. He dropped from the railing beside me and I held his arms before he stumbled over.

“All right?” I murmured as he straightened up.

“Theo, what are we _doing?_ Are we even allowed down here? I’m pretty sure that railing was there for a reason.”

I smiled at him, collecting our bag and tugging at his hand as I started to pick my way down the rocky slope towards the water.

“No one’s here to stop us. It’s a Sunday in the middle of fall, it’s too cold to come hiking in a place like this.”

The beta kept his mouth shut as we stepped, choosing our footing carefully until we reached the gentlest part of the river. I led him across the surface of the rocks, slowly crossing to the opposite side of the pool where a large, dense forest of pine trees lined the waterfall. We entered under the canopy, finding a flat space of grass before I dropped the bag and unzipped it. I set us up, rolling out a large sleeping bag as a mattress and laying several blankets down.

Liam watched down at me, his heartrate rising more for every minute that passed towards midnight. He was clearly becoming extremely stressed but his restraint had been incredible. 

“You planned all this?” He asked suddenly over the rush of water from the waterfall.

I stood, moving towards him with a nod.  
  
“I did.”

I lifted a hand to his forehead, almost grimacing at the heat of his skin. He was burning to touch, but I anticipated it. I reached down to the hem of his shirt, eyeing him with a soft smile as I lifted it over his head. As I undressed us he looked from me, to the rock pool, and back again.

“We’re going in there?”

I nodded, dropping my jeans and underwear.  
  
“Yep.”

I took his hands, leading him out of the trees and carefully stepping with him into the water. He gripped onto me, his breath rushing out at the cool freeze of the pool as it slowly deepened to our thighs.

“Theo.”

“Mm?”

“You don’t have to do this,” He warned as I led him deeper. “This is going to feel a lot fucking colder for you than it is for me.”

I turned to shake my head at him, brushing it off.  
  
“I’m staying with you, Li.”

He exhaled in surrender, his hand gripping onto mine as I led him further into the pool until we were submerged in the running water. It rushed around our shoulders, the freeze soothing Liam almost instantly as it chilled his burning skin under the full light of the moon. His eyes started to glow under the shine but his heartbeat didn’t elevate.

I pulled him closer, reaching up to brush the water over his forehead, throat and jawline. His eyes closed in relief as the cool liquid ran over him, leaning closer until our bodies pressed together underwater. I wrapped an arm around him and he tilted his head back for me to spill the water over his forehead and down his temples, looking so damn beautiful under the moonlight before me.

I reached up to run the cool water over his lips before leaning in and stealing them in a kiss.

Immediately, I felt his body relax. His muscles released and his arms twined around my shoulders as I walked him backwards, deep enough for the water to reach our throats. I felt his wolf settle at our closeness, the only parts showing being the golden eyes that shone into mine when he opened them.

The sounds of the night were peaceful and calming around us while the water caught onto the baby hairs at the napes of our necks. Liam leaned into me, closing his eyes and pressing his forehead to mine.

“Thank you.” He whispered into the night between us, his arms around my shoulders pulling me closer. “Really. This is perfect.”

I nodded against him, a soft smile kissing my lips at the sight of him so calm.

“You’re welcome.”

He leaned in for another kiss before lowering his face into my throat.

“It was you, you know.” He started softly, fingers spreading over my back under the water. “When I found something to anchor myself in the woods last full moon. You asked what I thought of – it was you. You calmed me.”

My heart somersaulted inside my chest and the smile spread properly across my face. I lifted his head from my shoulder and looked into the blue that remained after his wolf calmed down.

“Honestly?” I asked softly. “Even then?”

He nodded with a gentle smile.  
  
“Even then. Your scent calmed me, always has. And now it’s your touch, too.”

I exhaled in surprise, chasing him to connect our foreheads once more. The running water was loud around us.

“I love you.”

He nodded against me.  
  
“I love you, too.”

Our lips met as I leaned over him, my hands searching his thighs before gripping them and hoisting him up on my body. He curled around me in the water and perched on my waist, his hands holding either side of my face as we kissed. It felt so perfect, so real that the freezing temperature of the water around us failed to bother me.

I was wrapped in him, my airways absolutely smothered in his scent, and it was how I wanted to spend the rest of my life. His scent was like a heavy drug to my system, slowing me down and filling me up until all I felt or saw was him. All I wanted to do was devour him. I wanted to touch and lick and kiss him until he became a part of me, until he became engrained in my very blood.  

Liam was a craving. One that would never truly be satisfied, not unless we spent the rest of our lives joined together like this. It was an unrealistic dream to have, but I would take what I could get.

I turned, moving carefully across the rocks at the floor of the pool as I walked us closer to the waterfall. I stuck to the edges, following the rise of stones around the perimeter until we were almost underneath the spray of the fall.

I sat Liam upon the smooth underwater surface of a boulder, leaning him back against the stone wall as I pushed closer between his thighs.

“Is it okay?” I asked between kisses. “Do the rocks hurt?”

He shook his head when I pulled back, arms looped around my neck as I brought his knees up higher.

“No, it’s good.” He panted, eyes glowing once more as the moon’s rays became stronger. “Come here.”

He tugged me in for one more kiss before I lined up against him under the water and pushed in deep. He let out a shredded moan, clinging to me while his fangs protruded at my entrance. I pressed kisses over his jawline, feeling my Chimera come to the surface to meet with his wolf.

We stayed close together while I made love to him in the rock pool, spray from the waterfall raining down onto our shoulders and heads, dripping into our kisses as I thrust deep into him underwater. He curled tight around me, growling and whimpering against my forehead at the electricity that coursed through us.

Our wolves nuzzled at each other through our bond, both of us climaxing several times together in the secret space we’d made under the waterfall. It was raw, both of us gasping and growling, clawing at each other’s backs and ass cheeks as the time grew later, the moon growing stronger above.

We grew frantic, the pressure inside us threatening to burst as midnight struck. Liam’s claws were deep in my shoulders and his eyes were burning into mine as our orgasms neared. We panted into our kisses, growing closer and closer to the edge until-

“Theo,”

“Hm?”

“Claim me. _Bite me.”_

I rose to meet his gaze as I thrust, disbelief and desire thrumming in my veins.

“ _What?_ Are you sure? Those don’t just go away, Liam.”

_They're forever._

He nodded underneath me, his claws clenching deeper into my flesh as time ran out.

“I’ll be your mate.” He huffed, eyelids falling lower. “Theo, _please._ I want this. Bite me.”

I moved down to kiss him one last time before nodding. _I want this, too._

“Bite me back, okay?”

His eyes widened before he nodded back, and we both squeezed together as the pressure inside us suddenly combusted. We came with loud growls into the night, ducking our heads down and sinking our fangs into each other’s throats, piercing into the scent glands that had driven us crazy for so long. Something exploded in our veins as our DNA mixed through the bites in our throats, the both of us crying out as we continued to spill together.

I filled Liam up – something I was growing more and more addicted to doing, and we panted together under the waterfall as our bites were completed.

We suddenly felt so much closer, like part of my soul was inside him, and part of his soul was inside me. I _felt_ him, felt his emotions and the sensations coursing through his body. To an extent, I could feel my own touches upon his skin, feel the stretch of his rim as I still filled him, felt every breath he took and every beat of his heart.

We were joined, physically and spiritually. We were _mated._  

The water tumbling over us from above soaked the blood away from our throats, cleansing the skin before it healed over. Except these wounds didn’t disappear.

They remained as gentle marks in perfect arches over our throats, permanent upon our skin. They signified an unbreakable bond, a connection that would never die out. No other person in the world would be able to claim him, and no other person in the world would be able to claim _me._

I was permanently his, and he was permanently mine. Forever.

We panted into each other’s shoulders as the rush died down, heartbeats slowing together as the world came back into focus around us. My head spun a little with the adrenaline and we both laughed lazily before kissing once more.

I nosed against him and exhaled as a calm washed over me – over _us._

“You’re truly stuck with me now.” I murmured over the rush of the water.

He smiled back, fingers brushing over my face in the moonlight.

“Ditto.”

Both of our bodies started falling heavy as the adrenaline left our veins, our eyes growing sleepier in its wake.

“C’mon.” Li nudged at me softly, ankles still crossed over my back. “Don’t let us drown.”

I groaned and straightened up, staying inside him like I always did. I turned to slowly take us back to the shore, carrying my beta out of the water to lay us down upon towels on the makeshift sleeping bag mattress.

I pulled out for us to shift into comfort before sliding back into him and spooning his body. I was half-sure I was still spilling into him but failed to see the issue as our bodies grew heavier together. We laid and watched up at the sky from through the pine trees as clouds passed and our eyes slowly drifted shut.

I covered us with the blankets as we dried, both of us falling asleep under the full moon with Liam’s heart beating gentle and slow beneath my palm.


	10. CHAPTER NINE

Liam's POV

 

The week off from school for fall break was exactly what we all needed. It was time away from classes and bustling halls full of students, and time away from early mornings and assignment stress.

My week was well-spent. Monday morning I woke in filtered sunlight under a canopy of pine trees, naked and being spooned by Theo while the waterfall rushed twenty feet away. Our mating bites had been a little tender that day, but the incredible closeness we’d gained because of them made the pain worth it.

We were now literally inseparable, connected forever by the DNA we’d shared, and I didn’t regret it one bit. The way Theo liked to brush his lips over my mark told me that he definitely didn’t either.

We stayed together at the waterfall for close to half the day, swimming and exploring and savouring each other’s company until we grew too hungry to function. We’d slowly made our way back south and made it home by nightfall, stopping several times to take in the scenery on the way.

The remainder of my break was spent relaxing and seeing the pack.

Tuesday night we all revisited the movie theatre, this time to see the new Saw film.

Suffice it to say that Corey and Mason absolutely hated it. While Theo and Malia drooled at the gore, the two boyfriends shielded each other in a whinging, muttering ball of limbs. I distinctly recall hearing them wish they’d separated from us to see the new Blake Lively film instead.

The day after that, Theo and I spent our Wednesday at the mall indulging Corey, Mason and Malia’s urges for retail therapy. Neither of us had had a whole lot of experience with shopping; we hadn’t grown up with generous parents, nor any friends to venture out with. We discovered the world of retail together, being forced several times into dressing rooms to try on t-shirts and jeans by our three accomplices.

It was an interesting experience to say the least. An expensive one, too.

Thursday and Friday I spent relaxing at home surfing Netflix, gaming against Corey and Nolan on Xbox Live, and planting palms and begonias in pots out on the terrace to decorate our balcony. Theo spent those days working, catching up on the hours he’d missed during the start of the week.

As ridiculous as it seemed, we took the separation much harder than normal.

It had literally felt like a part of me had been removed, leaving a gigantic, gaping hole. A gigantic, gaping _Theo-shaped_ hole.

I had tried to distract my mind with TV shows and the like but still found myself watching the clock, counting down the very seconds until my mate would walk through the door. If the urgent way he’d burst into the house both of those days was any indication, he had felt the same thing being apart from me for so many hours.

We assumed it was a mate thing – something we were still getting the hang of.

Saturday Corey invited everyone over for a movie night. At first we’d been a little apprehensive considering their recent movie choices when voting at the theatre, but decided we could stomach a little romance for the two of them. They’d stomached gore and violence for us.

It turned out to be a good fall break, with just the right mix of leisure time and friend activities. I had fun, but started to notice something around the middle of the week.

Despite all the sleep-ins and extra rest the break had allowed me to gain, I found myself growing more and more tired as the week wore on. At first I just assumed it was my body falling gratefully into the relaxation of fall break, but it continued.

By the time movie night came around at Corey’s, my body had started getting slower. Feeling heavier. My appetite diminished and I spent more time laying immobile on the sofa or in bed, and Theo noticed the change in stamina almost immediately. He’d become concerned, wanted me to see a doctor before I went back to school in two days, but I’d brushed it off. I’d always been good with managing my sleep and could get up through exhaustion if I needed to.

 

The first day back at school was difficult to get through – coming from a publically exposed teenage werewolf with anger issues. It was _difficult._ But not because of the anger issues or lycanthropy.

My brain could barely process anything, my eyes too heavy to focus on anything that my teachers had scribbled onto the board. I barely heard a thing anyone said and almost dozed off during class several times before being yelled awake by a teacher.

I’d been a slow, nonresponsive corpse but somehow managed to survive through the day before Theo rolled by to pick me up. Instead of sitting to complete my homework upon arriving home like I usually did, I fell onto my mate’s bed, inhaled the scent from his sheets and slept my afternoon away.

I was woken for dinner, gently shaken awake by Theo. He’d sat on the bed at my waist and carded his fingers through my hair, looking down upon me with worry etched into his face.

“You need to see a doctor about this, Li.” He’d murmured down to me. “Please. It isn’t normal for you.”

The pure concern in his face made me cave in, and I’d nodded solemnly before promising I’d go to the doctor over the weekend when there was time. He had helped me up, pressing soft kisses to my forehead and temple before leading me out to where he’d set our dining table. He’d learnt how to make spaghetti.

I’d pressed my lips to the proud grin over his own and thanked him, sitting down to devour my dinner before moving into the bathroom to shower. He joined me, and our shared shower turned into him bathing me like a toddler – my limbs grew too heavy for me to focus enough to lift them. I’d napped the entire afternoon, but an hour awake was all my body would take before it refused to function.

I was carried to bed, tucked in and pulled close into Theo’s chest, where I fell asleep within mere seconds.

 

It was Thursday when I started feeling worse.

I woke in the morning with a headache, groaning into the pillow while the pain throbbed in my eye sockets and shattered through my skull.

After taking paracetamol, I laid in bed curled up on Theo’s lap while his fingers gently massaged my temples. The clock slowly ticked towards 8 a.m. but I couldn’t move. Not yet.

“You need to take the day off, baby.” He suggested softly, his thumbs circling into my sinuses. “Rest your head.”

I wanted to. I knew I _needed_ to, but it was the completely wrong day for it.

“I can’t take today off,” I muttered into the bedsheets. “Nolan and I have to meet with Coach Finstock, it’s important. We need to discuss the upcoming lacrosse tryouts for Winter training before competition season starts. I need to be there as one of the co-captains.”

A deep breath left my mate’s chest slowly, reluctance clear in his scent. His fingers grew softer over my skull.

“How about I pick you up early? Right after the meeting?”

“You’re not leaving work to get me early, Theo.”

“But I don’t-”

I pulled out of his hands and hoisted myself up, my face distorting in pain when the throbbing in my head doubled with the sudden altitude.

“I’m _going,_ and I’m _staying_ until final bell.” I argued, sliding off the mattress gingerly and standing up. “Please, Theo. I’ll be fine.”

He watched me dress with grudging hesitancy, his eyes burning _please don’t_ into my shoulder blades.

It took my pained, sluggish body an entire twenty minutes to get properly dressed and out the door, but eventually Theo drove me to school and stopped by the main footpath. We appeared to have made it mere minutes from first bell, and I felt a gentle hand on the back of my head before I slid down from the truck.

My mate looked worried, hesitant to leave me behind, but I nodded through the window at him. His jaw set and he threw the truck into gear as he tore away from the sidewalk, and I knew it was only to force himself to leave before he jumped out and strapped me back down.

I turned to trudge slowly up the path and through the front doors, everyone’s voices much too loud for the throbbing inside my head. The noises bounced and rebounded against my skull, my eyes nearly watering when it hurt too much.

“Liam, _hey.”_  

I turned from my locker at the sound of my best friend’s voice.

“Hey.” I murmured.

Mason’s eyes took me in, concern flashing into his features immediately.

“ _Woah._ What happened to you? Your eyes are like, super bloodshot. Don't tell me you tried weed without me. On a _school_ night.”

I grimaced at the volume of his voice.  
  
“I woke up feeling like shit, what else is new?”

He looked me over, his brows doing that sad thing they always did when he was worried.

“Maybe you need to stay home.”

I shrugged.  
  
“Can’t. Have to meet with Coach about lacrosse.”

The bell screamed above us, cutting off whatever rebuttal had formed in his throat. I lowered my head as the throbbing intensified once more, lifting my hands to cover my ears until the ring died out.

“Liam, you should let Nolan handle Coach.” Mason suggested beside me as I turned to close my locker and continued to first period. “I don’t wanna insult you, but you look like total shit. I’m sure Finstock will understand-”

“Have you _met_ him?”

“ _Yes…_ good point.”

“Look, Mase. I have to go.” I palmed at the pain in my temple before waving. “I’ll see you at lunch.”

My best friend stood and watched glumly as I walked away.

My head was spinning through the first two classes of my day, every noise inside the classroom like an explosion to my eardrums. I emptied an entire bottle of water and finally, by the end of second period, the headache subsided back to drowsiness. But my body wasn’t done with me, clearly.

The headache was replaced with _nausea_.

Full-blown, brutal nausea. My stomach was upset and aching by the time the bell rang for recess.

I dragged my feet into the cafeteria, skin slowly burning hotter the worse I felt. My friends tried to nag me about my health at our table but I cut their observations short. I sat slumped as my body grew weaker, barely able to stomach the sight of my lunch – let alone try to eat it.  

I had a free period after break, being excused from attending class to meet up with Nolan and Coach. I found them out on the field, standing at the sidelines together while Coach directed a ninth grade P.E. class with his usual ruthless comments and infliction of physical cruelty. I would have felt sorry for the young teens if I didn’t feel so damn awful, myself.

I approached the two, Nolan turning at my arrival. His blue eyes scanned over me, brows creasing in confusion.

“Dunbar!” Finstock scowled in my face. “Your _slow ass_ is late. You think it’s funny to waste other people’s time?”

I dropped my backpack, trying to rein in my impatience at the sickness plaguing my belly.

At my lack of an answer, Coach and Nolan continued their discussion concerning the try-out dates and drills. I tried to tune in, but lost concentration barely three minutes in.

I could barely focus on the conversation, my head spinning and stomach churning with discomfort. I tried to keep myself calm and breathing steady, briefly hearing Coach pause to scream at the ninth graders before I felt it.

I pressed a hand to my mouth when the bile started rising up my throat.

Nolan glanced back towards me as Coach berated his students, the concern growing harsher in his soft features.

“You really don’t look so good,” He said slowly, Finstock choosing that moment to catch onto our conversation. “You’re pale as fuck, and I’m fairly sure no one sweats this much so close to winter.”

“He’s just playing sick to get a free period like all the other freeloaders in this school.” Coach spat, folding his arms over his chest to scrutinise me. “You’re not getting off that easy, Dunbar! Take a lap!”

I had no intention of taking a lap. Not when my eyes widened at the distinct, tell-tale tingle in my lips.

_Oh no._

I promptly turned away, bending over and throwing up onto the grass.

I couldn’t control it, falling to my knees when my legs gave out, and the sweat from the fever ran down my temples. My arms shook with my weight as I emptied my stomach, bringing up what little I’d managed for breakfast that morning at home while someone called for the nurse.

“Dunbar, get your ass up!” Finstock continued to boom at me from above. “Vomiting on my field isn’t going to get you out of doing a lap! You know why? Because you’re a _lacrosse player!_ Exercise isn’t optional and I won’t have you turning into a _fatass_ in the offseason!”

“Coach, he really needs to go; he’s not well.” Nolan’s voice explained as he crouched beside me. “I’ll handle the planning for try-outs, just let me take him to the nurse.”

“ _Fine_ , get him out of here.” Coach dismissed with an irritated flourish of his hand. “But don’t expect me to forget about that lap, Dunbar! You can make it _three!”_

I barely registered his sarcasm as Nolan shouldered my bag and helped support my weight. He led me off the field and in the direction of the nurse’s office, watching across at my face every few moments.

“Are you okay?” He checked as we walked. “Not going to pass out?”

I shook my head.  
“I’m not sure.”

We made it to our destination in the next minute and a half, only stopping for me to retch into the garden once. The nausea had my limbs weak and trembling as I was deposited on the bed in our school nurse’s office, the stern Russian woman peering down at me from behind her fiery fringe.

The administration called Theo while I was poked, prodded, monitored and observed. My temperature was taken and my stomach pressed into with firm, cold hands as the woman muttered to herself in her cranky, native language.

“Is he all right?” Nolan asked from beside me.

The nurse glanced up to him before continuing her prodding into my stomach. It unsettled me and I turned onto my side, chest heaving as more bile rose up my throat.

“He is sick.” Is all she said before turning to scrub her hands in the sink basin.

Nolan frowned at me in irritation at the woman’s lack of care and communication, pulling up a chair and sitting by my head with a bowl ready while my abdomen churned and contracted with sickness.

Only two minutes passed before raised voices could be heard from the administration office several doors away. There were a couple of sharp warnings before the door to the nurse’s office was flung open and Theo strode in.

His eyes found me immediately, bright with alarm as he took in my pale, feverish state. He moved to my bedside and Nolan stood to vacate the space, the Russian nurse turning at Theo’s entrance with an unimpressed eyebrow raised.

He knelt to my side and his hands smoothed over the pale planes of my cheeks, panting slightly from the obvious rush he’d been in to get to me.

“Liam.” He breathed, his eyes searching my face and throat as he put together what was wrong. “You’ve thrown up?”

I nodded weakly in his hands, exhaustion prevailing as the nausea swirled in my gut.

“About fifteen minutes ago.” I managed under my breath. “Came out of nowhere.”

His eyes worried over me, fingers smoothing at the dark bags under my lashes. The nurse pressed her hands to her hips and addressed him.  

“Are you relative?” She inquired in her bored monotone.

He looked up at her voice, a scowl almost forming over his brow.

“ _Yes._ ” He replied firmly, hands still holding onto my face gently.

“He has virus.” She sighed. “Gastrointestinal. Keep him home twenty-four hours to recover. No throwing up at our school.”

With that the woman turned away, pacing out towards the administration office with long-legged strides of impatience. The room was quiet for a moment before Nolan peeked in at me from around Theo’s broad build.

“Will you be okay?” He asked uncertainly and I nodded almost immediately. Now that Theo was there, I knew I would be. “I need to get back to Coach. I’ll handle the organising for try-outs, don’t stress over not being there.”

I managed a smile.  
“Thanks, Nolan. Really.”

The boy gave a modest shrug as he backed away.  
  
“We’re co-captains. It’s what we do, right?”

“I guess so. I’ll see you next week.”

He raised a hand to wave before disappearing out the door.

“Rest up, Liam.”

After the boy left, Theo turned back to me. His fingers smoothed over my forehead and he frowned gently at the fever upon my skin.

“I knew you should’ve stayed home.” He murmured unhappily while he brushed my hair back.

“I’m really not in the mood for an, ‘I told you so,’ Theo.”

He shook his head.  
  
“It’s not an, ‘I told you so.’ It’s an, ‘I should have strapped you to the fucking bed and taken care of your stubborn ass.’”

A smile curled onto my lips and I laughed through my nose at his attitude, the head-strong Theo I knew so well shining back out through the cloud of affection.

My smile triggered one of his own and he shook his head at me with a laugh. He leaned in to press a kiss to my forehead before straightening up.

“Are you well enough to move?”

I slowly rolled onto my back and put my arms up, taking his hands and allowing him to haul me into a sitting position. My stomach stirred and cramped slightly, but no more bile rose to threaten my gag-reflex. I nodded to Theo and swung my legs over the side of the flimsy bed while he ducked down to shoulder my backpack.

He held an arm out to wrap around my back as I stood, but had to catch my weight immediately when my legs gave out. I almost growled with frustration as he saved me from the fall, feeling weak and fragile despite the strength I knew lay hidden inside me.

“Fucking hell.” I muttered, fingers gripping my boyfriend’s t-shirt as he hauled me up and into his arms. “I might as well have no limbs.”

“Don’t stress.” He soothed as he started walking, fitting us through the doorway and into the administration foyer. “You can’t help it; your body wants to rest.”

I huffed and looped my arms around his neck, fingers spreading over the warmth of his skin as he carried me.

“It’d just be nice if I could stand on my own two feet for once. Feels like you’re always carrying me.”

The fifth period bell sounded as we entered the office, students streaming from their classrooms and swarming into the hallway through the windows. A couple girls caught sight of us from the other side of the glass and pointed, turning to mutter to each other before more people gathered.

Theo couldn’t have cared less about the attention, stopping at the front desk to sign me out one-handedly while pressing a soft kiss to my hair.

The administration officer stared up at the two of us with a mixture of confusion and contempt on her face but he paid her no mind, proving an expert at ignoring people he disliked. I found that I enjoyed watching the loop of his handwriting as he filled out the sign-out page.

“I like it.” He shrugged contrarily as his signature was completed with a drop of the pen. “I’d travel everywhere with you like this if I could.”

He turned to carry me out the door, kicking it open with his foot, and I shook my head firmly against his shoulder. Several students gathered near the double doors, their whispers audible from around the open doorframes.

“Is that Liam Dunbar? Why is he being _carried?_ ”  
“Maybe it’s a werewolf thing.”  
“Dude, I think that’s Theo Raeken.”  
“That guy who tried to murder them all? What’s Liam doing with him?”  
“Maybe that’s who he’s dating.”

I tried to block out their rude, probing questions and focused on responding to the fact that Theo had just admitted to wanting to carry me everywhere.

“No thank you.” I begged to differ, earning a short laugh from him as he strode out to the truck. The movement of his stride from under me unsettled the remaining contents in my stomach and I had to grip his shirt. “ _Theo._ Put me down.”

He slowed to a stop at once, head whipping around to look at me as he realised I wasn’t just nagging him to let me walk on my own.

“What?”

“ _Puke. Now.”_

“Shit.”

He lowered me to the road in the parking lot beside the garden, supporting my weight as my arms trembled beneath me. I tried to hold the nausea back in reluctance to throw up in front of him, but he didn’t seem to care. He held me around the chest, a hand holding onto my forehead as I gasped and emptied my stomach into the mulch.

“Fuck, Li.” He sounded pitiful and worried from above me. “Do you really think this is gastro? I thought werewolves couldn’t catch viruses like that.”

I took a moment to breathe, trying to settle my throat enough so I could speak without accidentally vomiting.

“I didn’t think I could, either.” I agreed with an honest shrug. “But maybe it’s possible. Just hope my body fights it off fast.”

The hand over my forehead smoothed my hair back, a kiss dropping against the back of my head.

“Me too.” He murmured thoughtfully. “Ready to go?”

I nodded, letting him haul me back up into his arms. He settled me into the passenger seat of the truck, tucking my backpack between my knees on the floor and rounding the engine to jump in beside me.

He kept to lower speeds on the drive home, trying not to jostle my insides too much with the starting and stopping of traffic lights. Upon bringing me through the front door of our apartment, he made a beeline for the bathroom. He ran me a hot bath and lowered me into it carefully, fingers stroking over my temple from where he knelt beside the tub as I soaked. The hot water helped to settle my stomach, easing the weak tremble in my muscles as I fell drowsier with relaxation.

Theo took very good care of me, laying me in his bed with a bottle of water and a garden bucket he’d stolen from the neighbours downstairs, for emergency use if I couldn’t get to the toilet on time to puke. He sat by me for the whole afternoon, eating his dinner on the bed beside me and watching a film as night time fell. I drifted off to sleep curled up against his side, head over his heart and his arm around my back while my skin flushed with a fever for the rest of the night.

 

He stayed home with me the next day, cradling me in his lap on the couch and encouraging me to nibble on dry biscuits to keep my stomach stable while we tolerated the shit daytime TV just for something to do. The nausea was still there, but had been successfully kept at bay just by having Theo with me.

He was just a little obvious about his happiness when I’d told him that his presence made me feel better, the proud grin hinting at his lips and making me smile, too. He’d held me closer on the sofa and pressed another kiss to my skin before promising he wouldn’t go anywhere until I felt stronger.

By Saturday, I felt a whole lot better. I could walk around the house on my own without my legs giving out and managed to successfully convince Theo that I would be fine at home on my own while he went to work. He’d agreed on the condition that I kept the front door locked and that I would text to tell him how I felt.

I spent the day curled up under a blanket on the sofa, the mid-fall chills from outside slowly becoming colder as October transitioned into November. I binge-watched TV shows on Netflix and texted with Theo when he had the time to respond during his shift, the morning almost transitioning into afternoon when my eyes slipped shut.

I slept all afternoon, only waking when the front door clicked shut behind my mate. He smiled over the back of the couch at me, a hand lowering to my head.

“Hey.” He greeted softly. “How are you feeling?”

I nodded up at him sleepily.  
  
“Pretty good.”

“You hungry for some dinner?”

My shoulder shrugged in half-hearted affirmation.  
  
“I could eat.”

He nodded and brought up one of my hands, pressing a kiss to my knuckles before turning towards the kitchen. I ate most of my dinner when it was ready, being nagged especially to eat my vegetables before deciding I was full. We made gentle love under the sheets of his bed before falling asleep tangled up and still joined together, as had now become normal for us.

 

I felt a little sick again the next morning, a disgusting fullness roiling in my stomach, but I forced Theo out the door with the promise that I would be fine.

“Liam, you can’t-”

“It’s a _five-hour shift_ , Theo, don’t stress.” I argued back before leaning in to join our lips. “You’ll be home in no time. Plus I’ve got to get through homework on all our new study topics so the time will fly by.”

He eyed me from the front door, his face tightening with uncertainty before he sighed heavily. He drew me in for a hug and nosed against his bite mark upon my scent gland.

“You’re lucky I love you and your stubborn ass.” He muttered against my skin. “I still want you to text me, okay?”

I nodded over his shoulder.  
  
“I will, I promise.”

“Good. Give me a kiss.”

We broke apart just enough for our lips to meet once more, and then a second time before he joined our foreheads.

“I’ll see you soon.”

I smiled softly back at him.  
  
“See you soon.”

He slowly let go of me, grabbing up his phone and keys before letting himself out our front door. I smiled after him, turning and padding down the hallway to my bedroom. I put some music on, settled into the chair at my study table and started on the set homework for our new English Lit topic: The Andromeda Strain.

The hours didn’t exactly fly by like I’d expected but noon came around soon enough. My tortured stomach let out a gentle grumble and I listened, shutting my Biology textbook and making a beeline towards the kitchen. I ended up making myself a simple sandwich, devouring it behind the counter and moaning when the taste of chicken and mayonnaise exploded on my tongue.

I’d missed enjoying food.

I was heading back down the hall to my bedroom when I heard it – the rustle. I had a split second to pause and listen before a sudden slam echoed from the direction of the front door.

I stood frozen, halfway to my bedroom. My wolf raised his hackles at the sound, alerting me immediately that something was extremely wrong, but I called out anyway.

“Theo?”

No response.

Two distinct heartbeats could be heard from the kitchen and only one couple came to mind – the Burnett couple. Dread filled me and panic surged through my veins as I backed further down the hallway, pulling my phone out immediately to shakily dial for Theo.

I waited with shaking hands, breath caught in my throat with fear.

“Liam?” My mate’s wary voice came through into my ear. “Liam, what’s the matter? Why are you calling me?”

“Theo,” I whispered as low as I could. “Theo, there are two people in the house. They broke in through the front door and I think it’s _them._ I think it’s the hunters. _”_

The sudden sound of something shattering came through the phone as Theo registered my words, clearly having dropped whatever he was holding. I heard his breath hitch and a voice called out for him in the background as he started to pant, his footsteps making it clear he had started running.

“Liam, _get out!_ ” He begged breathlessly through the phone. “Baby, _go!_ Find someplace safe and stay there until I get to you! _Please,_ I’m coming! I’m going to get there as fast as I can!”

My breaths shuddered in as the panic overwhelmed me.

“Theo, I’m afraid.” I trembled into the phone. “ _I’m afraid.”_

“ _Liam, run! Get out of there!”_

I turned to do as he said, moving for the window at the end of the hallway when I cried out. Something stung in my throat and I fell against the wall to put a palm to it.

“ _Liam?!”_

I pulled the dart from my jugular and stared with violently trembling hands as my body rapidly started growing weaker. _No._

“ _Theo they’ve drugged me!”_ I shrieked into the phone while I could. “ _The dart- Theo they’ve… Theo…_ Theo…”

“ _LIAM! BABY, TALK TO ME. **LIAM!** ”_

I slid down the wall as my legs turned to jelly beneath me, my phone clattering to the floorboards. My eyes started closing and I couldn’t stop them, no matter how desperately I tried to fight the heaviness that overcame me.

I felt water stinging at my tear ducts upon hearing the desperate screams and cries coming from the phone as my boyfriend lost control. My heart was racing with panic and despite the weight of my limbs, I was shaking from head to toe. I was quickly fading out and all I wanted was to see Theo burst through the door and destroy the couple, to prevent them from taking me away. I wanted him to save me.

But if it ever happened, I didn’t get to see.

The last things I saw were two blurred pairs of legs striding down the hallway towards me when my eyes slipped shut and everything turned to black.


	11. CHAPTER TEN

Theo's POV 

 

_“Theo, they’ve drugged me! The dart! Theo, they…”_

_“LIAM!”_

Pure panic riled in my stomach when Liam fell silent on the other end of the phone. My breaths were frantic and loud in the silence of my truck as I sat frozen, hand on the ignition while footsteps thundered in the background on Liam’s end.

_“LIAM! Baby, please answer me! **LIAM!** ” _

The call was ended and I was left huffing furiously while my mind abandoned me.

I moved mechanically, throwing the truck into gear and tearing out of the café’s parking lot as quickly as I could. I could hardly breathe and was confident I was experiencing serious cardiac issues, but the only thing on my mind was getting to the apartment before the Burnetts left with my mate.

I nearly killed myself on the short drive home, running through two red stoplights and narrowly dodging the turning vehicles amid the intersections. Beeps, yells and screeches of tyres echoed in my wake but I barely registered them, my foot to the floor and my body only focused on one thing.

I scarcely gave myself time to kill the truck’s engine before throwing myself out onto the driveway, panting. The silver Mercedes was nowhere to be seen, but I hoped – _hoped_ with all my heart – that they’d left it elsewhere, out of sight for the execution of their kidnapping.

I took the stairs three at a time, my thighs burning with the effort and barely holding me up when I burst through the open door of our apartment. I wheezed and gasped as I stumbled and tripped through the house with breathless screams.

_“LIAM?! LIAM! Fucking please don’t be too late. **LIAM?** ” _

I staggered from room to room, Liam’s scent still fresh in the air as I searched frantically. His phone was left abandoned on the floor in the hallway, up towards the end window where I assumed he’d tried to escape before being hit with the sedative.

“ _Liam?!”_ I gasped and fell to my hands and knees above his phone, pain protracting through my chest as it grew tighter and tighter. “Baby, _please._ ”

I could hear several heartbeats growing closer from outside the apartment and clutched my mate’s iPhone in my hand, getting to my feet and storming to the front door immediately. I prepared to fight, only to find our neighbours from the floors above and below. They stood in a concerned huddle and stared at me, looking over my frantic state.

“We heard screaming, sweetheart.” The middle-aged woman from downstairs cooed carefully. “Is everything all right?”

I shook my head, swallowing and trying to string together a viable sentence.

“Liam’s gone,” I rasped. “He’s been kidnapped, by a young married couple driving a silver Mercedes. Did you _see them?_ Did you hear anything?”

The neighbours exchanged worried glances before shaking their heads.

“No, I didn’t see anything.”  
“Neither did I. I’m so sorry.  
“Should we call the police?”

I shook my head and backed away, retreating into the doorway of our apartment.

“No. Thank you.”

The concerned people on the balcony watched me sadly as I swung the door shut. I brought up Liam’s phone immediately, searching his contacts and dialling for Mason. Four rings felt like an eternity.

“Li-uum!” The teen answered cheerfully, my heart aching at the name in my ear.

“Mason?” Was all I could manage, my breaths shuddering as my body started to tremble.

“Theo? Is that you?” Mason’s voice took a quick turn. “What’s the matter? Where’s Liam?”

I stood still for a long moment, frozen while my nervous system malfunctioned. It took mere seconds for the situation to register before my throat closed up and I sunk to the floor against the wall.

“He’s g-gone,” I exhaled, the palpitations returning to my chest. “The hunters… I couldn’t s-save him.”

“Oh my god.” The voice in my ear was filled with dread. He turned his head away from the phone. “ _Corey?!”_

I listened while Mason clambered around on the other end, running to find his boyfriend.

“ _Corey, they’ve taken Liam.”_

_“What?”_

_“Theo’s on the phone, he’s barely understandable. The hunters have taken Liam, we need to go, now.”_ Mason returned the phone to his head and spoke to me. “Theo, are you there? We’re coming, just stay where you are and don’t move, okay? We’re going to call Malia on the way.”

I couldn’t respond, my throat too tight and my head starting to spin. Liam’s phone left my grasp, clattering to the floor once more as I tucked my knees into my chest and buried my hands into my hair. I started rocking myself back and forth, deep wheezing breaths echoing through the kitchen as I started to hyperventilate.

_Liam’s gone. He’s been taken and I couldn’t save him. I couldn’t stop it._

_I’m a monster._

My entire body started to shake as I rocked back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. The same words circulated in my mind and white spots started clouding my vision when oxygen failed to reach my brain. I sat there for an eternity, positive that I’d never trembled so violently in my life – not unless you counted sex with Liam. But that was the farthest thing from my mind.

_I can’t breathe._

The door suddenly burst open beside me and the familiar faces of three alarmed teenagers appeared. They found me in a shaking, gasping mess against the wall, hyperventilating with frightened green eyes and my claws digging deep into the floorboards.

Mason and Malia ducked down to me while Corey rushed off to search the house. Two pairs of hands held my knees and cheeks, their voices mere indecipherable hums to my ears. Corey’s voice was calling out in the background, the familiar syllables of Liam’s name clear on his lips.

_I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe._

_“I can’t breathe.”_

“We know – Theo, you’re having a panic attack.”

“You need to calm down and focus, bring yourself back. Ground yourself.”

_I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe._

“I don’t think he’s listening.”

My hands were pulled up from the floorboards, grasped together in someone else’s and squeezed until I looked up.

“Theo, look at me.”

Mason’s eyes were dark and worried before mine, face serious as he held me still and stared.

“It’s going to be okay.”

I found myself unable to look away, numbness spreading through my limbs as we stared. He inhaled and exhaled at a steady pace and I watched his shoulders rise and fall. I distracted myself with it, soon finding that I’d started to mimic it.

_In, out. In, out._

“Good.” He nodded before me, Malia watching beside me with a hand on my arm. “You’re doing good, Theo.”

I shook my head at them both.  
  
“He’s gone. They have him.”

“We know, it’s okay. We’ll find him.” Malia nodded softly. “Just focus on _you_ first.”

“You need to relax your muscles.” Mason referred to my trembling form. “Can you do that for us?”

I closed my eyes, seeing blue ones staring back at me behind my eyelids. It made my heart hurt while I tried to keep my breathing slow, eventually managing to release the tension that gripped my body.

I slumped in Mason and Malia’s hands, slouching against the wall in defeat while the clouds finally dispersed from my mind.

“He called me.” I shook my head in despair. “I left work as soon as I could but they drugged him. They were gone before I could get here.”

Malia’s hand tightened around my arm.  
  
“It’s not your fault, Theo.”

I shook my head again.  
  
“I should’ve stayed home. I shouldn’t have listened to him.”

“We all know Liam’s stubborn.” Mason tried to reason with me. “He would have thrown you out that door himself if you refused. We’re going to do everything we can to find him, okay?”

Malia’s thumb brushed over my arm comfortingly until I nodded. _Okay._

The two of them shared a look before speaking carefully.

“We called Scott.”

My eyes shot up to watch their faces while Malia continued Mason’s sentence.

“He’s Liam’s alpha, he needs to know about this. He can help us in finding them.”

I agreed with them softly.  
  
“How’d he take it?”

Mason grimaced.  
  
“Not good. He’s dropped everything and is on his way, but... he was _mad.”_

“Very.” Malia added. “I could hear him shouting through the phone from the backseat of the car.”

Scott had a right to be mad. The pack had kept the threat of the Burnett couple from him, hadn’t told him that his beta’s life was in danger, and now that beta had been abducted.

I could imagine the alpha’s worry and anger upon learning about the situation.

“How long until he reaches Beacon Hills?”

Mason shrugged uncertainly.  
  
“Davis is roughly two hours away and he needed to pack some of his shit. I’m hoping he’ll be here by sundown.”

My head shook on its own accord, a fresh flare of panic rising in my chest. Sundown was too long to wait and felt like an entire eternity away. Who knew where the Burnetts would have Liam by then, or what they would’ve done to him.

“I can’t wait that long.” I refused, trying to stand up. “We need to start tracking them, to find out where they’ve gone-”

My limbs were restrained and I was held in my spot as Corey returned from his search of the house. He looked down upon us sadly, worry clear in his face.

“We know how the desperation feels to get out there and chase them down,” Malia nodded. “But we have no idea what direction they’ve taken. They could be anywhere and there aren’t enough of us to lead that kind of widespread search.”

“We’d be unprepared if we ran into trouble.” Corey agreed, coming closer. “We have no plan.”

I felt defeated, anguish settling like iron in my veins. It weighed me down and turned solid inside me. The longer we sat there, the further away the hunters were getting. The further away they were taking Liam.

I could feel it, the distance increasing every second that I sat there and did nothing. The rope tying us together was becoming taut, pulling tighter and tighter and soon I feared it might snap.

“Theo, listen to me.” Mason’s hands squeezed my own again and I looked up to meet his eyes. “You know Liam. He’s _strong._ He knows we’re going to come for him and I’m positive that he’s going to hold on for us until then. He’ll hold on for _you._ You need to believe that, too. You need to have faith in him.”

I nodded dejectedly, looking to my hands encased in his.

“It just feels like we’re letting them get away.”

“Oh, there’s no way they’re getting away with this.” Malia promised fiercely. “We will bring Hell with us when we find them, I can promise you that. But we need information, time, leads and _people_ if we’re going to make it work.”

Corey knelt beside Malia.  
  
“They’re right. This isn’t something we can fix overnight. If we build up our forces and learn as much as we can before attacking, the better the outcome is going to be.”

“And hopefully the fatalities will be much lower, too.” Mason agreed. “You just need to let yourself breathe, and believe that we _will_ get through this. Okay?”

I closed my eyes and nodded.

My hands were tugged on gently and the three teenagers stood up around me.

“Come on. Come sit down on the sofa, let yourself relax. You need to recover from the scare.”

I let Mason pull me up and followed my mate’s friends into the living room. I sat in Liam’s corner of our couch, pulling my knees to my chest and accepting the blanket they wrapped around me. Corey and Mason sat in the adjacent armchair and stayed close by while Malia disappeared to the kitchen to make me a tea.

I closed my eyes and rested my head against the back of the sofa, resisting the sting of tears behind my eyelids as the Chimera inside me curled up in angst without his mate. I tried to ignore the panic that threatened when the roiling, upset fire in my gut tried relentlessly to warn me that time was already running out.

 

***

 

Liam’s POV

  
My head was heavy and stuffed full with clouds as I awoke to sounds and smells only typical of a hospital. There were beeps and whirs, and the scent of disinfectant and latex came as no shock to me. I’d spent enough time inside the Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital for those smells to burn themselves permanently into my memory.

But I didn’t remember injuring myself. I had no reason to be inside a hospital.

Upon realising the lack of logic in the situation, my brain suddenly switched on and my body started thrashing and fighting on instinct. I could remember what happened before I blacked out. I’d been on the phone to Theo because the hunters had found the house and…

_No._

My eyes snapped open and I felt my lungs lock immediately as I glanced around the room.

I was restrained to a hospital bed, my wrists and ankles bound in each corner by chains with steel knots thicker than my own arms. A pulse oximeter was attached to my left middle finger, recording the frantic beats of my heart in a repetitive echo on the monitor beside me.

The room was all white walls and bright lights, rectangular in shape and even larger than mine and Theo’s apartment. Benchtops contained various serums, vials and test tubes. Medical tools and contraptions were laid out upon the sterile surfaces and unopened boxes of alcohol wipes, syringes and latex gloves were arranged upon shelves above them.

I felt my blood chill with fear as I put it all together.

Theo had been right; they were going to experiment on me. The only kinds of people who needed equipment like the ones in this room were surgeons and nurses.

I felt total panic and fear sinking into my bones as the situation became realer and realer, my heart starting to ache and scream for Theo. I thrashed and tugged against the chains that entrapped me but they barely gave, my heartrate slowly picking up on the monitor by my head.

I was waiting for myself to wake up and have it all just be a nightmare. I waited to wake up on my bed at home, surrounded by homework – but the pain that was burning in my wrists and ankles from the sharp bite of the chains was _real._

 _This_ was real, and I was trapped.

I froze, my head snapping to attention when I heard footsteps. A door opened down the other end of the laboratory, and I watched with bated breath as a petite blonde woman stepped through to descend a staircase I’d never even noticed was there.

The woman glanced across the fifty yards between us as she landed, the curious flash of her bright eyes visible even from this distance. I felt my body tense as she drew closer and closer, my jaw locking and chin lifting defensively while my legs tried powerfully to yank free from their chains.

She approached the end of the bed and my wolf surfaced with furious golden eyes. My teeth snapped and snarled at her with low growls from my throat in an attempt at protecting myself. _Stay away from me._

My behaviour didn’t appear to intimidate her; her eyes were wondrous with awe and curiosity as she observed me, as though she couldn’t quite believe I was real. Two small hands braced on the end railing of the bed and she watched while I thrashed and yanked at my chains, growling at her venomously from where I lay.

“You’re quite the fighter, aren’t you?” She observed softly with a tilt of her head. “Such fierce blue eyes.”

My pulse beeped in the air between us, the digits on the monitor reading at 104.

I glared at the woman before me. She was rather small, maybe only five foot four at around 110 pounds. Her eyes were a bright grey, rimmed with soft dark lashes upon a delicate, youthful face. The blonde would have appeared pretty if she wasn’t the person who’d hunted me for months and shot me before bringing me here.

My breaths heaved inside my chest and I glared down the bed at her.

“You’re Edith.”

It hadn’t been a question but she didn’t answer anyway, smiling softly at me before turning and bending over to inspect the chains that held me down. Her silence made me anxious and my eyes narrowed harder.

“Why am I here?” I demanded. “What do you want me for?”

Edith straightened up and glanced back to me, a quizzical expression falling over her features before she rounded the bed and moved closer.

I tried to jerk away but the chains refused to allow it, and she stopped at my knees.

“You don’t already know?” She asked, vindictiveness and condescension underlying in her tone. It felt like she was mocking me. “You know our names, surely your deputy friend could find our qualifications, too?”

She knew about Parrish. She knew we’d gone to him.

It was beyond me how she found out, but the mere fact that she _knew_ was enough to make my wolf bristle with anger to conceal his fear.

I processed what she said and wondered what their qualifications had to do with the reason I was their prisoner. I tried to remember the jobs listed on their legal profiles.

Edith was a Reproductive Biologist with a doctoral degree in Endocrinology – whatever _that_ was. And Mark was a geneticist and anatomist. It confirmed my suspicions: that I was here for an experiment, but I didn’t know what _kind._ It didn’t give me a definitive answer.

Her answer was no answer at all.

“I don’t understand.” I stared warily at her, my guard still up.

A breath left her lips and she nodded once, turning to the bench parallel to my bed against the wall and opening an overhead cupboard.

“Scott McCall is a true alpha – an alpha not born by the death of another, but solely from his spirit.” She started explaining, confusing me even more. “He’s strong, determined. Born to lead. True alphas only come around once every _century_ ; they’re incredibly rare. Mark and I were positive we would never see one in our lifetime – yet he exists today.”

I watched as she turned, ripping open a packet containing a loop of clear tube and unravelling it. I frowned as she assembled it and connected it to a bag of clear fluid on a stand by my head.

_What the hell is that for?_

The confusion grew thicker at her irrelevant words. Admittedly, I hadn’t known how rare Scott was… but it still made no sense why she was telling me this.

“And?” I prompted irritably when she didn’t continue.

She turned to smile at me once the clear tube was successfully connected to the bag of fluid.

“ _And,_ you are his beta.” She provided, her eyes confident on mine. “His _only_ beta – he turned you with his own bite. Do you know what it means to be the beta of a true alpha, Liam?”

I shouldn’t have been surprised that she knew my name, but the shock still sent cold chills up my spine.

I stared at her, a guarded frown of wariness permanent over my brow.

She reached out for my arm. I jerked away immediately but the movement was halted by the chains. I couldn’t escape her grasp.

“It means you have gifts.” She explained as she slid up my arm to take my hand. “Abilities other betas don’t have.”

She ripped open a paper packet and cleaned over the back of my hand with an alcohol wipe. I tried to yank it away, suddenly understanding what she was doing. I exhaled sharply with the effort but she held my hand tight and continued.

“You have been blessed by the Moon Goddess.” She raved. “You have the gift of strength. The gift of compassion. The gift of _life._ ”

I frowned harder.  
“Life?”

She stopped to stare wondrously down at me, her mouth open in soft surprise. Her grey eyes roamed my face.

“You really don’t know?” She whispered.

My jaw clenched harder under her stare, because it was honest surprise that looked down at me. My wolf was screaming at me to get away from her, to break free from these chains and _run._ Because this woman knew something big.

She knew something about me that I didn’t know, something that would turn my life upside down. I feared it, but she divulged it before I could stop her.

“You have the ability to bring life into this world – something millions of men and women would kill for. The gift of life means you can fall pregnant.”

And there it was.

She dropped it on me like a ton of bricks, and I most definitely collapsed under the weight of it.

My eyes grew impossibly sharp, the chill of complete and utter _fear_ running through every single vein in my body. I listened, unable to breathe as my heartrate hammered faster and faster.

110… 113… 117… 121… 126…

I shook my head firmly, my eyes never leaving Edith’s.

“You’re lying.” I denied. I tried to sound firm, but my voice came out soft with shock. “That kind of thing isn’t possible.”

The blonde smiled down at me with a soft shake of her head.

“I assure you, legend does not lie.” She declared confidently. “The last recorded case like yours was exactly a century ago, and as you can imagine, that beta’s family grew _very_ big.”

Her smile grew and excitement shone in her eyes.

“It’s all recorded in history, Liam. It’s a solid fact. You are the male beta of a true alpha, and when you were bitten the Moon Goddess gifted you with a womb. Why do you think it hurt so much when your body took to the bite?”

I couldn’t breathe. I kept shaking my head, because _no. It’s not possible. It’s not true._

But it answered a lot of questions. Questions I’d had about myself that I never thought to actually ask. I had assumed that what was happening to me was normal, that every beta felt and did the same things. I’d thought it was just nature, but… clearly not.

“But I don’t get heats.” I found myself denying faintly, my face paling. “Omegas go into heat.”

“That’s because you’re not an omega.”

Edith sat upon the bed at my waist. I tried my best to budge away but only managed a few inches upon twisting my spine enough.

“Your hormones do the same thing as theirs, but you won’t go into heat.” She explained. “Yours are subtle traits instead: your mood slips, your full moons are more intense. Your craving for violence and bloodshed burns much fiercer.”

_The mood swings. My IED getting worse._

It was all making sense.

Her words had credit and a dreadful feeling in my upset gut told me she was _right._

I swallowed down the powerful urge to scream. I tried to keep calm as I asked the biggest question of the lot. I was terrified of the answer but I told myself I could handle it, because I was _strong._ I had to _stay_ strong.

“So why am I here?”

Edith shook her head down at me from my waist, making me feel much like a small child.

“Isn’t it obvious? We’re putting babies into you.”

The world fell from underneath me and I felt the blood drain from my face.

Her words echoed inside my mind. _We’re putting babies into you._

My mouth fell open and my eyes burned wide with disbelief and fear. My limbs turned numb from the absolute shock that coursed through my body. My heartrate was most definitely through the roof if the erratic beeping beside me was any indication, and the words just repeated themselves over and over again. _We’re putting babies into you._

Edith continued pleasantly and calmly beside me, one of her hands curling back around mine.

“We’re utilising your uterus. Using it to grow ourselves the most perfect family.”

I tried to pull away from her in disgust – used all the strength I had. But it only caused the chains to bite deeper into my flesh.

A terrified noise left my throat as she trapped me there, forcing me to _listen_ and face the daunting facts she was laying out for me.

“When Mark and I married, I was clinically diagnosed as infertile. So I couldn’t provide us with children. We looked into other options, considered a surrogate. But instead of humans, we soon became fascinated and obsessed with the idea of a family with supernatural blood.”

She let go of my hand at last, standing from my bedside and turning to assemble what looked like a cannula onto the end of the clear tube she’d prepared before. Her fingers worked at it so effortlessly, so expertly; it was clear she’d been doing this a long time.

“Werewolves became the ideal choice. Your bodies and genetic make-up are _incredible_. Far more advanced than humans. You’re strong and determined creatures, you heal at unbelievable rates, you’re compassionate and protective over one another. Mark and I decided we wanted those traits engrained into our own children.”

She turned back to me, cannula in-hand and a nostalgic smile on her face.

“So we experimented, tried to successfully fertilise several omegas.”

She reached for my hand again and I struggled against her as hard as I could, but she held me fast with firm hands.

A cry moaned in my throat as the needle pierced into my vein.

“But their pregnancies failed; the wolves died of exhaustion. Their wombs couldn’t take the number of pups we wanted from them, so we knew we needed something stronger. A creature who could take the strain of a multiple conception. And almost straight after our last failure, we discovered the legend of true alphas and their betas. It was almost like fate had laid the information in our laps.”

I continued shaking my head, not wanting to believe the words coming out of her mouth. My feet struggled against the end of the bed as Edith opened the passageway in the tube for the clear liquid to start trickling into the back of my hand from the bag on the stand.

“As if to reinforce the idea, word soon spread through the country that Beacon Hills had a true alpha, and we knew it was no coincidence. We couldn’t contain our excitement. We found out that Scott McCall had a pure turned and bitten beta and we had to see for ourselves. We drove to Beacon Hills, found your pack.”

She reached out to touch my cheek.

I thrashed violently, strained breaths of effort leaving my mouth as I tried to escape her touch. Her fingers stroked over my cheekbone, her palm cool and soft against my cheek.

“And you turned out to be so perfect. Fierce and healthy and strong, and such a _beautiful_ face.” Her eyes turned a little darker with eagerness as she held my face, my breaths panting out in panicked huffs while she spoke. “The children from you will be incredibly stunning. With Mark’s genes mixing in yours, the offspring will be half-human, half-werewolf. They won’t need to control a shift on the full moon and they’ll inherit your gifts.

They’ll be fertile and intelligent, stronger and so much more beautiful than what any other werewolf could produce. All the waiting we’ve done will be worth it. We can finally start our lives as parents and create a family of true bloods.”

Edith let go of my face and leaned back, as though giving me space while the denial and panic surged through my veins. _I need to get out of here. They can’t do this._

“How?” I found myself stammering fearfully. “How are you planning to…”

“Get you pregnant? Injection of seminal fluid, as a first attempt.” She explained, standing from the bed and turning to produce several dark amber vials from the overhead cupboard. “One week prior to the procedure, we will inject you with several doses of ovulation-stimulating hormones: some gonadotropin and a strong luteinizing hormone to boost the maturing of your eggs.”

She extracted precise measurements of liquid into three syringes and I froze, blanching as she turned towards me with them in-hand.

I was starting to feel extremely sick.

“We’re hoping that with your natural high fertility rate, and with enough injections, your ovaries should release at least six to a dozen mature eggs – as opposed to the regular human count of one to two.”

I shook my head, feeling faint with shock.  
  
“No…”

“We’ll have to find your uterus to perform the procedure.” She tilted her head as she relayed the information, smiling with enjoyment. “Deep in the rectum you should have a small opening like a cervix: right above your prostate, if studies prove correct. All it needs is a little nudge and it should open right up for us.”

The bile rose up my throat and it was all I could do to keep shaking my head. The heart monitor started creeping up to the hundreds again.

“No…”

“Yes.” She nodded animatedly, eyes alight. “If the injection is successful, you should fall pregnant within twenty-four hours.”

She held my wrist still as the first syringe was connected to the cannula in my hand. I watched with terrified breaths and grunts as the crystal clear liquid was pressed through, disappearing into my vein and running into my blood.

I was gasping so fast that I was positive I would pass out.

“With such a high number of eggs having been released from your ovaries, we’ll be lucky if half of them are fertilised and successfully implanted into the uterine wall.”

The tears started prickling behind my eyes.  
  
“No.”

“And within a month your womb should start to swell. Whether your body takes to the pregnancy or not is a whole other issue, but…” She shrugged with a smirk. “Time always tells.”

She turned to dispose of the spent syringes while I hyperventilated behind her.

“You have the strength to survive the failures and we will keep trying until we get a result. _Several_ results in there, preferably. At least four embryos as a base minimum.”

My eyes fell impossibly wider along with my mouth. My brows worried fiercely at the information.

_Four? Four babies. As a minimum._

My arms and legs started falling weak as all the strength left my body. I gasped for air, helplessness washing over me in terrifying waves as the weight of the situation crushed me.

“You can’t.” I rasped. “I can’t.”

“But we _can._ And _you_ can. Your genetic make-up is more than strong enough to take it.” Edith smiled and brought a hand back to my pale cheek. “You’ll bring us a beautiful litter in no time, sweetheart.”

The word _litter_ made me scowl with contempt.

She spoke about me like I was some kind of animal, some common _dog._

I was silent, chest heaving while Edith turned to put away the dark vials of what I now assumed were the hormones. I hadn’t been awake any longer than half an hour and she was already beginning the process of… _I can’t even say it._

My fear started turning into anger, as it had always done for the past decade of my life. I glared furiously at her.

“You’re psychotic.” I spat, finding my voice and shaking my head in disbelief and revulsion at the things she had revealed about her past. Who knew how many hundreds of omegas she’d killed with exhaustion. “You both are, you’re fucking _insane!”_

The insult barely seemed to bother her, convincing me that she’d heard it many times before. She merely shrugged at me nonchalantly.

“We’re getting older. Desperate times call for desperate measures.” An excited smile spread across her face and her shoulders hitched in suggestion. “Who knows, with luck you’ll deliver just in time for Summer. I’ve always adored Geminis.”

I felt sick. So entirely, dreadfully sick.

_This isn’t real. This has just got to be a terrible, terrible dream._

But it wasn’t. It was real, and I had no choice but to lay there and process the facts as my panic turned to total shocked numbness in my veins.

I could get pregnant. These people knew powerful information that neither Scott nor I could _ever_ have comprehended, and they were going to use me to give life to at least a dozen children.

The same sickness I had felt for the past few days at home suddenly resurfaced.

I leaned over the side of the bed as vomit surged up from my stomach. My limbs started shaking anew as I ruined the floor in my new prison, desperation expanding in my chest as my wolf howled. He howled in defeat inside me, in a cry for our mate.

I was trapped here and there was absolutely nothing I could do to save myself. My life was going to be cut very short.

I’d never get to see my home again. I’d never get to see my mate, my alpha or my pack. I’d never get to graduate high school or go to college. I’d never get my drivers licence and I’d never get to grow older and see the world.

I’d never get to spend my life with Theo.

The tears trembled down my cheeks and I tried to curl up as much as I could, tucking my chin into my shoulder. The silent sobs shuddered over me.

I let myself feel afraid. I let the terrified cries of my wolf vibrate into my very bones. I was helpless to do anything else.

I needed my friends, I needed my pack, I needed Scott and I needed Theo.

I needed them very, very soon.


	12. CHAPTER ELEVEN

Theo’s POV

 

I had been correct in assuming that waiting until nightfall for Scott to arrive in Beacon Hills would feel like an eternity. An eternity that I could’ve spent out on the streets looking for Liam.

Mason, Corey and Malia had kept me on the sofa in the lounge room, the TV on at a low volume while they waited for Scott to show up and yell at us. I kept silent for the entire three hours since they’d sat me down, barely able to focus on anything happening around me. I couldn’t see past the fear and I couldn’t hear past the racing thoughts inside my head.

All I wanted was to track those hunters down, ruin them piece by piece, and bring my mate home. I would search for hours, days, weeks, months. With the amount of motivation I felt, I knew that if no one tried to stop me I wouldn’t rest once until I found him. No matter how long it took.

I sighed, half-listening to the news channel on the TV before me. I sunk further into Liam’s side of the couch and lifted the blanket to my nose, inhaling his scent from the wool. I knew I was only torturing myself but it was the only thing grounding me, reminding me that he was still alive and that I _would_ find him. I’d have him back home and I would smell his skin again for real.

My eyes had almost drifted shut again when the front door rattled and swung open.

Mason and Corey stood from their seats defensively, preparing for a fight – but the way they both immediately shrunk and froze told me it was their alpha who’d walked through the door.

I turned my head to watch as Scott dropped a duffel bag next to the kitchen counter with a soft _thunk_. His brown eyes were wide and furious with two very clear questions: why and how. His power surged through the room and dominated the three pack members quickly.

Malia’s hand touched to my back, circling over my shoulder blades softly to keep me calm under the furious air Scott had brought inside with him, and I watched out of the corner of my eye as the alpha stormed into the lounge room to round on us.

Mason and Corey gaped at him before trying to speak.

“Scott-”

“Don’t tell me hello, I want _answers._ ” He started sharply, worry clear in his eyes. “How the hell could you guys let this happen?!”

“Scott, please, we-”

“I don’t need excuses, _tell me!_ How did this happen?! How the hell did a beta as strong as Liam manage to get kidnapped by a single pair of hunters in his own home?! And how did I not know about their presence in Beacon Hills?!”

My jaw clenched with fury as Scott’s words renewed the intensity of the situation in my shocked-out mind. I was sure he and I were equally as angry: Scott’s beta was taken away, and my mate was taken away. We were both furious at the hunters and worried sick about Liam.

His questions remained unanswered as the three teenagers around me fell quiet. I shook my head when they failed to explain.

“I wasn’t here to protect him.” I uttered lowly. “He fucking needed me and I wasn’t here.”

Scott’s wild eyes turned to me.  
  
“Where _were_ you? You’re supposed to be living with him!”

My head whipped up and I glared at him, my eyes glowing with anger.

“He forced me to go to work instead of staying to take care of him. He was stubborn about it, told me he’d be okay so I _went.”_

“ _Why_ did he need taking care of?” Scott’s face was ridden with misunderstanding. “What happened to have made him so vulnerable that he was so easily abducted by these hunters? It’s not normal of him, he’s stronger than that-”

“He’s been a bit sick.” Mason spoke up to save me from facing Scott’s questions alone. “The school nurse said he had gastro. He’s been tired and coming to school with headaches, and then he threw up on the lacrosse field and Coach yelled at him-”

“Mason.” Scott interrupted him with a serious expression. “Werewolves don’t _get_ gastro. They don’t get _sick_ like that. If Liam’s been so weak and unwell, it’s because someone has poisoned him. I’ll ask again: how the hell did this happen?”

The pack exchanged glances before Corey explained.

“Two full moons ago the hunters tracked Liam down in the woods. They shot him with a bullet containing yellow wolfsbane. Theo got him to the animal clinic in time for Deaton to save him, he said it was a rare strain of the poison.”

“Aconitum anthora,” Scott pushed a hand through his hair. “I know what it is, it’s been used against me before. It’s powerful.”

I watched, knees up at my chest under Liam’s blanket, as the alpha moved into the lounge room. Scott took a heavy seat on the corner of the coffee table, forming a triangle between the five of us and trying to calm himself down.

He was doing much better at quietening down than I had. He was extremely level-headed.

“But if you got him to Deaton, he would’ve cured him.” He continued, his voice softer. “The poison should be out of his system, especially if it happened two months ago. Are you sure no one else attacked him before he got sick?”

The pack shook their heads until I looked up with sudden realisation.

“It happened after I bit him.” I whispered faintly, causing Scott’s eyes to fall on me in shock and surprise. “When I took him up north for the full moon we… we mated each other.”

I felt my heart hurting at the idea that _I’d_ made Liam sick.

“You…?” Scott was in disbelief. “You’re _dating_ Liam? This whole time there was something going on and no one said anything?”

“I thought you would have guessed when Liam told you they’d moved in together.” Malia provided obviously. “Does it really matter who Liam decides to date?”

Scott’s eyebrows rose to the ceiling but he shook his head.

“I’m not mad, just… _wow._ It explains why you’re so distraught.” He frowned apologetically to me. “So you mated each other? Bit each other properly under the full moon?”

My heart started aching at the memory of that night, my Chimera whimpering inside my chest from the absence of our mate.

“We did.” I nodded softly. “He only started getting sick after that night. I don’t know if it’s possible but maybe he’s rejecting the mark, I’m not sure-”

“The mark can’t be rejected.” Scott schooled us clearly. “If two wolves feel strongly enough for each other, the bites will take. They’ll remain upon your skin in the form of feint scars. If they don’t take, they heal over completely. It’s not a matter of making the other sick from rejection.”

“Then I don’t have any answers.” I slumped back into the sofa in a deadpan. “No one has poisoned him since two months ago, but somehow he still got sick.”

Scott’s face was a blur of concern and confusion.  
  
“How long ago did these hunters appear? Did they hurt anyone else?”

“Theo spotted them in early September.” Corey answered. “He found them spying on Liam from the school parking lot. They don’t seem interested in anyone but him; we think they want him for something.”

The alpha shook his head again in exasperation.  
  
“Why wasn’t I told about it the _minute_ you guys found out they were here? Why didn’t anyone call me? I could have helped to prevent this.”

“Liam begged us not to call you.” Mason revealed sadly. “He knew you’d drop college straight away to come help and he didn’t want to be the reason you left school. He felt guilty about it.”

Scott palmed over his face, eyes closing in stress as he processed the information. I almost smiled softly at the idea that perhaps Liam’s stubbornness drove him just as mad as it did me.

“He’s seriously the most headstrong kid I’ve ever met.” He sighed before sitting up straighter. “So let me get this straight. These hunters spied on him, attacked him on a full moon and failed to abduct him. He and Theo start seeing each other and they move out together – which now I assume was to get away from the hunters. Months pass and somehow Liam gets sick, and now he’s been kidnapped.”

Everyone in the room nodded at his brief explanation of events and the alpha shook his head in exhaustion.

“Well, what do we know about these people? What information do you have?”

Mason straightened up, as I knew he would.

“We got their license plate and looked up their identities with Parrish. They’re anatomists from Great Falls, Montana. A couple named Edith and Mark Burnett. They drive a silver Mercedes and have no criminal records – we suspect they have someone in law enforcement helping them out. It’s clear they’ve done this kind of thing before and it’s almost impossible to cover the kind of tracks their kidnappings would leave – witnesses, surveillance footage, fingerprints etcetera.

They found this apartment somehow, without any indication from outside that Theo and Liam even live here. They’re also very good at disappearing when you start looking for them.”

“They’re anatomists from Montana?” Scott repeated dubiously. “What is it about Liam that convinced them to drive all the way to Beacon Hills? That’s at least a twenty-hour drive.”

“We’re not exactly sure, but we have a feeling they want to experiment on him. They must be werewolf fanatics of some sort; the husband is a geneticist, that might tie into it.”

“I don’t understand – they could have picked up a beta just like him, in any part of the country.” Scott argued with frustration. “Betas get turned by the bite every single day, I don’t doubt there are hundreds in Montana alone. Why did they come specifically for Liam? There’s something we’re missing here.”

Everyone shrugged before Malia turned to me.

“Maybe word spread that you grew close to him.” She suggested to me, treading lightly over the topic. “Perhaps the hunters have been ordered by one of your enemies, to use Liam to get to you.”

My eyes blazed with fury and I glared at her.  
  
“Are you seriously going to blame this on _me?!”_

The mere force from my stare made her retreat across the sofa to get away from me.

“We’re just trying to pinpoint all the possibilities.”

“And you have to admit, you have made a lot of enemies.” Corey added with a shrug.

I scowled in their faces.  
  
“If I still had existing enemies, don’t you think I would have tracked them down by now? I’m a murderous Chimera, _remember?_ ”

Malia sunk into the sofa beside me with guilt as I turned her own words against her, and the room fell quiet.

Scott eased the tension gently.  
  
“If they want to experiment on Liam, it seems unlikely that getting to Theo is their prime objective. This sounds more personal to the hunters. We may not have a reason for why they want him, but we do have ways to find them. We have Liam’s scent, we have his _mate_ , we know how to track and we know where they live and what they look like. It’s a strong start.”

He reached across from the coffee table to lay a hand over my knee encouragingly and I did everything I could to refrain from jerking away at the touch.

“There are five of us and two of them.” He said confidently. “We have abilities that they don’t and we have people who can help us track them down in a heartbeat.”

_It won’t be that simple._

“If you’re expecting this to be easy, you’re fucking idiots.” I hissed at them under my breath. “These people know what they’re _doing_ , Scott. They’re smart. They’re always one step ahead and I don’t doubt that they have more people behind this. No amateur plan is going to help us find them, or defeat them. We need something more than just determination.”

“We aren’t amateurs anymore, Theo. We’ve seen too much for that. We’ve all seen how psychotic minds work, we’ve unravelled the plans of killers with the most complicated motives. We’ve managed to beat everything that’s ever threatened us, and we’ve solved riddles from the smartest antagonists. We’re not alone and I’m confident we can handle this.”

“And Liam can handle it too.” Malia said softly from beside me. “We know how strong he is, and how stubborn. He will fight as long as he has to until we can get him out of their grasp. You know he will, Theo.”

I closed my eyes against her words, willing tears not to come. The ache inside my chest was phenomenal.

“It’s going to affect you, though.” Scott warned me. “This distance.”

“How?” Malia’s voice asked from beside me.

“Mates are bound mentally and physically, they almost share a conscience. When mates are separated for a certain period of time, those bonds inside them start to tear. If you and Liam are kept apart for long enough, it can start to cause problems.”

The pack frowned in worry around me as I opened my eyes slowly.

“What kind of problems?” Mason asked softly.

“Physical pain, weakness, mental derangement, depression, psychosis… I think it can even kill them.”

Eyes turned back to me while my heart started to worry even more. I knew that Liam suffered during our time spent apart, just as much as I did. One full day apart while I went to work was enough to make his wolf stress.

“It’s going to get hard and there’s no guarantee that we will find him before the effects start to change you.” Scott explained gravely. “We can just hope and try as best we can to track these people down before that happens. We need Liam to hold his own, but we need you to stay strong, too.”

I looked at the four faces surrounding me. They were such a close-knit and determined pack. They had a power together that I admired.

I could already feel the strings that held me together starting to fray, and I’d only been apart from Liam for just over twelve hours.

It was going to be painful, I knew. But I’d endure it if it meant that I got my mate back as quickly as possible. I’d always been good while under torture, restrained or not. I could last. I just hoped that Liam was strong enough to do the same.

I finally nodded firmly at the pack around me – a silent promise that I would try my hardest.

“Where do we start?”

Scott stood from the coffee table with purpose, moving back into the kitchen to retrieve his phone from the duffel bag by the door.

“We’ll start first thing tomorrow morning by tracking Liam’s scent, to try determining if they’re still in Beacon Hills.” He announced while he dialled a number. “In the meantime I’ll call in a few favours, get as many people on this as I can. You guys should get something to eat and catch some sleep, you’ll need the energy.”

The alpha moved out onto the balcony with his phone to his head, the slant of his shoulders rigid with worry. Malia moved out to the terrace after him, her arms looping around his waist as she hugged into his chest in the night. He wrapped around her while he spoke to someone over the phone and it made my insides curl with pain and envy, watching them get to be _together_.

Corey and Mason sat and watched me with sad, pitiful eyes in the silence of the lounge room and I couldn’t take much more of it. I stood from under Liam’s blanket and escaped the stares, disappearing into the darkness of the hallway and stopping where my mate’s scent was freshest.

I felt my heart contract as I visualised the fear in my beta’s face when he’d called me.

I put a hand to the wall and lowered my head as tears started to well, the Chimera inside me curling into a furry ball of depression while we ached. My palm smoothed over the wall where I just knew Liam had fallen before collapsing under the sedative, the smell of his terror still lingering upon the paint.

It tore me apart that I hadn’t been fast enough to save him.

_I should have stayed home._

“Theo.”

I turned at the gentle voice from behind me to find Mason. He seemed a bit hesitant to approach, but swallowed it down and reached out for me anyway.

I tried not to flinch when my beta’s best friend laid a warm hand on my shoulder, the touch unfamiliar but encouraging. I kept my head down, staying still under his hand until he spoke.

“We’re going to find him, okay?” He declared softly. “I know it seems like he’s vanished off the face of the earth but Scott’s good at this. He has just as strong a bond with Liam as you do and he’ll stop at nothing to save him.”

“There are literally millions of places they could have taken him.” I rasped into the dark hallway. “For all we know they’ve already started mutilating him.”

Mason’s hand tightened over my shoulder and he spun me around slowly to face him.

“That’s not true. You would feel it if he’d been hurt that badly. Just like Scott said, there’s a physical connection between you – he hurts, _you_ hurt.”

I knew Mason was right; Liam hadn’t been injured yet. Not terribly.

But the feeling in my gut was one of panic and complete fear, my instincts gripping me so tightly that it was hard to breathe. I shook my head in distress upon feeling it, lowering my chin to hide the shine of my eyes.

“He’s terrified.” I whispered. “They’ve done something to him, something to frighten him. We need to find him. Fast.”

“We will.” The teenager promised. “Theo, we’ll _find him.”_

I kept my head down, shoulders sagging while I let myself feel the terror for just a few minutes. Mason’s hand was there on my shoulder to keep my head above water when I felt myself slipping, and for once I let my feelings show in front of someone who wasn’t Liam.

The breath left my lungs in a defeated sigh and I slumped down against the wall where my mate had fallen mere hours ago. My heart let out frantic, aching pounds that could be felt all the way to my fingertips. _I miss you, Li._

Mason didn’t judge me or look down on me with disgust. Instead he slid down the wall to sit beside me, making himself a silent companion that I didn’t know I’d needed until then. I’d needed someone to open up to without saying anything, someone to help share the weight upon my shoulders.

I looked up to the teenager after a few quiet moments, a sad smile twitching over the left corner of my mouth for a second.

“You’re a really great friend to him, you know.” I told him in the darkness. “I’m not sure where he’d be if you weren’t there to keep him steady all those years.”

I felt Mason’s soft smile beside me.  
  
“He’s had it really rough. There were times when I thought he wasn’t going to make it through high school, even before Scott gave him the bite. He was just so furious with the world and nothing could calm him down most days. I was afraid he’d end up in juvi or something before senior year. But Scott taught him. He chained him to a damn pole and told him he would have to find a way to stop his anger if he didn’t want to become a murderer.

So he tried. Now look at him; he was made the alpha of our pack while Scott went to college. He’s dealt so well with the things he’s seen and with losing his parents, he’s moved out of home and found his _mate._ ”

“And then been kidnapped shortly after.” I muttered glumly, slouching against the wall. “I feel like I’ve made him weaker.”

Mason shook his head beside me.  
  
“Not a chance in hell. When he fell for you, he found something that made him happy. Really happy.”

I shut my eyes against the darkness at the pain from his words.

“He started making good memories,” Mason continued. “And he learnt what true, strong love feels like. Love that I _know_ he didn’t feel with Hayden. Yours is solid, something that can be felt clearly by everyone in the same damn room. It was enough for him to ask you to _mate him_ – and that is something powerful in itself. It’s _commitment._ Liam can’t even commit that much to lacrosse, and lacrosse has been his outlet for half his schooling career.”

I let myself smile just a little, my aching heart starting to lift a tiny bit at the words Mason was spilling to me.

“Scott always says that love is stronger than hate.” He told me. “Hate and anger gives you some insane motivation, sure, but when Liam let his anger in, he lost himself. He couldn’t control his wolf and he risked the lives of others. But now that he has you, I think he’s become so much fiercer. He’ll fight for what you two have. It can motivate him and ground him all at the same time, allow him to keep a level head. He’ll be calmer, smarter.

He was strong before, but now he’s so much more powerful. He has someone to live for, a future to look forward to. You haven’t _weakened_ him, Theo. You’ve given him _hope.”_

_Fuck…_

I had to lower my head to my knees and squeeze my eyes shut to prevent the tears that threatened to well up once more. My heart hurt, so fucking much. But I needed to stay positive.

We would find Liam. We had to; the beta didn’t work so hard to turn his life around, and save so many innocent lives just to end up being tortured and ruined by a pair of hunters. He didn’t deserve it and there had to be more planned for him than _this._ His story couldn’t end here.

I lifted my head, turned to rest my cheek upon my knee.

“You know, for what it’s worth… I’m sorry.” I whispered to the teen beside me. “I’m sorry for all the things I’ve done to you and Corey, and the pack. I was deranged, so brainwashed by the Dread Doctors that I truly believed that their goals were my own. They controlled me, warped my mind. Made me into their killing machine.”

Mason nodded against the wall beside me.  
  
“I know.”

“I’m just… I’m really sorry.”

“I forgive you.” He said softly, turning to look me in the eye. “You’ve changed since they put you in the ground – you’ve become a better person. You’ve tried to make up for what the Dread Doctors made you do instead of putting the blame on them for your actions. You owned up to the things you did, and that kind of honesty takes a certain measure of maturity. You’re actually a really, _really_ strong person, Theo. I’m starting to seriously admire you for that.”

I didn’t know what to say to the obvious praise or how exactly to handle it. I didn’t _receive_ compliments. So I remained quiet beside Mason instead.

I never saw myself as admirable, honest, strong or mature. I’d never even looked at myself to seek positive qualities, only ever the bad.

But now that it had been laid out before me, I was starting to see. I was becoming a real person, someone with a heart and feelings and a personality. I’d managed to tolerate other people enough to get a job, and somehow had the ability inside myself to feel _love._

The Theo I’d grown up as would never have smiled unless it was for some sinister reason. He never would have helped another person out of the goodness of his heart, nor been as caring and gentle as I now was towards Liam.

I had never imagined myself laughing and smiling and having a normal life where I went to the movies with friends and did _groceries_ and lived in a regular house. I never saw myself this happy and certainly never saw myself falling in love, let alone so damn deeply. I never saw myself being able to open up, to feel comfortable enough around someone else to be able to strip myself bare for them like I had done for my mate.

All these things I used to think were mere illusions and hindrances – they were now some of the biggest parts of me.

Theo Raeken was becoming _human._ And it all started with Liam.

“Guys!” Malia called through the house, rousing me from my thoughts. “We’re getting In-n-Out, put your orders in!”

Mason turned to me in silent question and I shrugged, moving to get to my feet.

“I think I’m going to go for a walk.”

The teen stood up with me.  
  
“You’re not going to go after the hunters alone, are you?”

I shook my head on a sigh.  
  
“No. I just can’t sit here and wait until morning to start looking. I have to get out there and do something, start tracking his scent at _least._ ”

Mason watched me glumly with an understanding nod.

“Are you sure you don’t want to eat? You heard Scott, you’re going to need your strength for this.”

I shook my head again, stuffing my hands into my jeans and slowly stepping down the hallway. My fingers closed around Liam’s phone in my pocket and I felt my heart suffer some more damage.

“I can’t stomach anything right now. You guys just enjoy your burgers.”

The rest of the pack turned to watch as I wrenched the front door open.

“Just don’t leave town, okay?” Mason requested softly. “Because you’re not alone and we’re doing this together. All of us.”

Malia nodded solemnly.  
“We’re all with you.”

I looked over Mason’s shoulder, at the other two teens in mine and Liam’s kitchen. Scott was only just visible on the phone, out on the terrace.

I gave a grateful nod to the loyal, kind-hearted people before me and turned to leave.

“I won’t leave town.” I promised.

Mason nodded.  
“See you soon, then.”

The door closed behind me and I let out a heavy, shuddering breath of agony as Mason’s goodbye ripped through me. Those words had been the exact same words Liam and I had said to each other in the morning before I’d left for work – and look how that worked out.

I took a deep breath and tried to dispel the thoughts.  
  
_I can’t keep doing this to myself._

So I started walking. My breaths came deep and cold as I forced myself to move; if I could get moving, I could distract my body from the oncoming attack of emotions and breathlessness that fell over me every time I thought about missing Liam. I scrubbed at my eyes before they could grow wet, growling at myself for my weakness as I started off down the street.

I walked. And walked, and walked.

I don’t know how long I was walking for. I never checked the time after leaving the apartment. All I had as an indication was the fact that I’d been walking long enough for the tip of my nose and my fingers to freeze in the November night air.

Soon the sky started to lighten above the town, stars fading away and disappearing more for the longer I walked. Street by street came and went under my shoes, my mind never really registering where I was. All I knew was that I had to keep moving, and that I had to keep _smelling_ for any sign of Liam.

Beacon Hills slowly lit up underneath the morning sun.

Bright bursts of oranges and blues mixed in the sky, creating a sunrise that would have been gorgeous if it didn’t signify another day that Liam was out of my reach. I decided that nothing would ever be beautiful again, not until I had my beta back in my arms where he goddamn belonged.

No matter how brightly the sun would shine, my days would feel grey. My heart would ache and my mind wouldn’t let me rest. My Chimera would howl with the dreadful cries of a lone wolf until I found Liam, until I had him safe and unhurt and curled up against my bare chest.

I knew that every day until I found him would be a curse.

 

The four people I’d left behind last night were seated together at the dining table when I finally walked back through the door. They all looked freshly woken, munching on cereal and sipping at juices and teas in a comfortable silence.

All of them jumped to attention at my arrival, relief quite clear on their faces. Scott put down his mug, brown eyes worrying up at me.

“Were you out all night?”

_I don’t need you to care, Scott._

I shrugged expressionlessly, turning to drop my keys onto the kitchen counter beside… _Liam’s_ keys. They looked so normal, splayed out next to mine as though he’d only just dropped them there himself – as though he was home. It was agonising to have to tell myself that it wasn’t true.

My heart hurt again at the simple reminder that he was gone and I turned my back on it, moving away from the keys before they broke me in half.

“Theo.”

I stopped as I reached the hallway, not turning. I listened to whatever Scott had to say.

“I know it’s hard, but you need to look after yourself if you’re going to get through this. You can’t help Liam if you’re a starved, sleep-deprived corpse. You need to eat and get some sleep. And if you need to talk-”

“I don’t.”

“But if you _do-”_

“You’re here. Got it.” I cut him off petulantly. “Are you done?”

Scott didn’t speak; the room was quiet for a few seconds, and those few seconds were all I needed. I’d succeeded in pushing him away, so I immediately continued up the hallway to my bedroom.

I shut the door behind me and tried not to give in to the aching tenderness that I felt when Liam’s scent engulfed me from the bedsheets across the room. _It’s like he was just here._

I shut my eyes and took a deep breath through my mouth.

_I will not cry._

I tried my hardest to reassure myself. I told myself that today was a new day. We’d work on finding Liam and hopefully get the leads that we needed. Today would be progress, one step closer to getting him back.

It turned out that thinking positively was one thing, but forcing my brain to believe the bullshit lies I was feeding myself was a whole other fight.

I moved through the house to the bathroom, standing immobile under the burn of the water while I stared into the tiles. I tried to sear the situation off my skin. It was as though I thought that if I burnt myself badly enough, the pain from the heat would overpower the pain inside my heart.

But I discovered that wasn’t the case; it just made me feel ten times worse before I healed.

I was stepping into a fresh pair of jeans when there was a knock to my closed bedroom door. I tried to ignore it, but it came again and again, the person on the other side suddenly banging relentlessly until I stormed to wrench it open. I damn near ripped it off its hinges in the process.

I scowled, more than ready to abuse the hell out of whoever had annoyed me, but my expression fell unexpectedly upon spotting the lanky young man on the other side of the door. I almost gaped before covering up, lifting an eyebrow, setting my jaw and glaring.

“Can I help you.”

It clearly wasn’t a question, but Stiles answered anyway.

He put his arms out and gave a sarcastic smile.

“Yeah, hi Theo. Really nice to see you, too.” He put a hand over his heart. “I’m _fine_ , by the way. Just in case you cared.”

“I don’t.”

“But as an answer to your question: _no_ , you cannot help me. Because instead _I’m_ here to help _you._ ”

My eyebrow rose a little higher with doubt.  
  
“You’re here to help me.

“That’s what I said!” Stiles confirmed enthusiastically, moving into my personal space to wrap an arm around my shoulders and guide me into the hallway. “I’ve been carefully selected from a large, very talented group of people and sent _specifically_ to annoy you into eating. And seeing as we have a fuck-ton of work to do today, I suggest you hurry it up. At least three muesli bars if you’re going to be stubborn about food choices.”

My eyes could’ve rolled right to the back of my skull.

The pack was gathered at the table when Stiles walked me into the kitchen. Their heads turned to spot us upon entry.

It seemed that Mason, Corey and Malia were taking their Monday off from school to help search. I also noticed that Lydia had added to the group as well, likely having come with Stiles.

I was pushed into a seat at the end of the table beside Malia and Corey, and had a plate of toast set before me with a glass of orange juice. Two small white pills were placed onto the table beside the juice. 

“Just a little something to help with the lack of sleep.” Stiles mentioned over my shoulder, patting a hand to my back before moving across the kitchen to join in on Scott and Lydia’s conversation.

I stared down at my buttered toast, mouth feeling dry. The idea of eating anything made me feel sick, but I knew Scott was right. If I was going to survive long enough to save Liam, I would need to take care of myself – even just a little bit. So I forced down the pills with some juice and started stuffing toast into my mouth, forcing myself to just chew and swallow mechanically.

It tasted like nothing on my tongue, merely a crunchy texture inside my mouth until I swallowed. I felt a couple pairs of eyes on me while the pack tried to assess my mood, but I kept my sight lowered, trained on the patterns in the wood of the dining table.

I was surprised when no waves of exhaustion rolled over me upon starting the day. I expected to feel dead tired. I thought I would’ve turned into a cranky, overtired ball of stress with a head as heavy as my heart, but no such thing occurred.

Except perhaps the cranky part.

We all gathered in front of the apartment complex beside Stiles’s battered old Jeep while Scott outlined the objectives of the day.

The wolves were going to be split into pairs to cover separate parts of Beacon Hills in pursuit of Liam’s scent. We would essentially be walking and smelling all day, searching the entire town until a scent came up.

“Theo, did you catch anything while you were out last night?” Mason asked between Scott’s sentences.

I shrugged.  
  
“I caught a hint of his scent every now and then but it never led me anywhere.”

What I didn’t say was that I half-believed I’d imagined it.

I entertained the thought that maybe I’d already started to lose my mind over the distance between Liam and I, so much so that I’d started conjuring up his scent from memory purely because I missed him. It could have also been from my own skin or because I was tired, but I wasn’t motivated enough to say so aloud.

Everyone else seemed to be thinking it, anyway. I knew it was clear on my face what I was experiencing.

“So we’ll text each other every hour to keep in touch.” Scott reminded us. “If we find nothing when sundown comes, we rendezvous back here before dark.”

“What are the others going to do?” Malia asked, gesturing to Stiles, Lydia and Mason.

“We’re going to the Sheriff’s Station.” Stiles answered. “I think I can con my Dad into loaning me his work laptop for research purposes.”

“Have you told him Liam’s been taken?”

“We will.” He nodded seriously. “Once he hears about the situation I’m confident he’ll be on-board with helping to search for the Mercedes’ last known whereabouts. If he and Parrish can get hold of surveillance footage from major roads we might be able to determine their direction of travel. I also want to try getting stations in other states to monitor for their vehicle. If we’re lucky they won’t have even left Beacon Hills.”

“But if they’ve taken Liam up to Montana?”

“Then they might have already arrived.” Stiles grimaced. “If you don’t stop, it’s only eighteen hours with good traffic. It’s been almost nineteen since they took him. With any luck they might have stopped overnight so there’s the possibility of catching them in Idaho. I’ll do what I can to convince Dad to get an alert to the border patrol and contact the police department in Great Falls.”

Scott nodded confidently at the information.

I had to say, I was almost impressed; Stiles’s internship had taught him plenty. He sounded like a cop already.

“Okay,” Scott turned to the pack. “Malia and Corey, I want you to take the south. Theo and I will take the north.”

I almost rolled my eyes – of course he wanted to be alone with me. I expected a stern conversation about how unsuitable a mate I was for Liam _._ Ex-murderer didn’t put me in a good light to date _anyone._

“Keep your phones on you and if you catch anything, _text._ Let’s go.”

I sighed, reluctantly moving to Scott’s side as the pack dispersed in all different directions. Malia and Corey sent me sincere glances over their shoulders before starting on their route south while Mason and Lydia piled into Stiles’s Jeep.

Scott and I headed up the street, neither of us saying anything. We walked together for close to fifteen minutes before he tried gently to talk to me.

“You’ve changed.”

I kept my head down, the two of us walking through every single street on our way north.

“So I’ve heard.” I muttered, kicking at a rock on the asphalt.

“It’s not a bad thing.” The alpha reassured me while we walked. He was taking the conversation slow. “You’re just much different; it’s obvious you’re letting yourself _feel_ things now. What started it off?”

“We’re not here to catch up and suck each other’s dicks, Scott.” I snapped irritably at his prying. “We’re here to look for Liam. I’d appreciate it if we made the effort to stick to that.”

Scott’s scent turned defensive and he put his hands up in surrender.

“All right, I’m sorry. I’m just trying to catch up with everything that’s happened since I left for college.”

“Ask someone else.”

Irritation spiked in the air around him and he scowled up at the houses we passed.

“You know what, I was wrong.” He muttered sharply after a few seconds. “You haven’t changed; you’re still a complete asshole. How someone as kind as Liam managed to fall for you is beyond me.”

I shook my head with resentment, jaw setting.  
  
“You think I’m not surprised?”

“I think you have some serious issues that you’re too afraid to deal with.” Scott expelled with brutal candour. “Instead of opening up to people, you put up walls and push them away. You make people feel _hated_ just so they refrain from treating you like a normal human being.”

I looked away, biting on my tongue at his accusation. He was right.

“Maybe you don’t think you deserve to be treated like a normal person, but shutting yourself away from everyone isn’t the way to live. I mean, when’s the last time someone asked you how you were?”

“Just over two weeks ago,” I snarled. “After I fucked your pure little beta for the first time.”

Scott fell quiet with anger.

Regret burned through me, something in my heart stinging at the words I’d used and the way I’d spoken – both to Scott, and about Liam.

I gave the both of us a few minutes to cool off, our steps quicker with tension and anger as we stalked up the road. I let my shoulders loosen and took deep breaths to try concentrating.

“I’m sorry.” I apologised as we turned into the next street. “It wasn’t like that with Liam. I… I really care about him.”

I refrained from saying what I really meant, the words refusing to slip off my tongue for anyone other than Liam. Even then, they were difficult to get out.

Scott seemed to ignore me, however, because it wasn’t enough. So I sighed and just let myself say it.

“I’m in love with him.”

His head lifted to look at me. He stared over my face for a moment while we walked, as though he were trying to figure out if it was really _me_ who’d just said those words. I didn’t blame him; even _I_ was still surprised at hearing myself say them.

“I love him.” I sighed softly. “All I want is to see him happy. I know you think he could do so much better than me and that’s okay-”

“I don’t think that, Theo…”

“But I’ve proven to myself that I can’t stay away from him. There’s a force that pulls me towards him and it’s impossible to fight against. So I let myself open up to him and he didn’t run. He… _did_ something to my heart. Made me better. It’s not easy to open up around other people but…”

“With him it’s effortless.” Scott nodded from beside me, understanding. He was quiet for a moment before, “I’m sorry for what I said, about you being an asshole.”

“Don’t be, it’s true.”

“Except it’s _not._ ” He denied. “Not anymore. It’s clear you’re different – I’ve even noticed that the pack’s grown really fond of you. You _do_ have a heart, Theo, you’re just… not sure how to let it beat.”

I kept my eyes down while we walked, surprised at how much Scott was able to understand about people he barely knew. Sure he’d known me since fourth grade, but that was before the sociopathy. Before the Dread Doctors got to me. Before I planned my own sister’s death just to steal her heart.

Somehow Scott could find it in himself to forgive people, even after they’d tried several times to betray and destroy him. He was completely deserving of his title as a true alpha and I felt that Liam was extremely fortunate to have had him to learn from. I definitely could've done with the same. 

“When did you know?” The alpha asked softly after a few minutes. “That you loved him.”

I shrugged, watching my feet.  
  
“I probably knew deep down since the moment I met him.” I let myself talk about it. Hearing the words for real felt strange inside me. “First time I admitted it to myself was right before he got shot by the hunters on the full moon. I’d just calmed him down and I had him up against the tree and I just… he was so damn beautiful and I just _knew._ ”

Scott smiled, watching the sidewalk disappear below us.

“You deserve to be happy.” He nodded sincerely. “Both of you. After everything you’ve been through, you deserve to build a perfect life together. You’ve already got the house. Next could be pets or college… maybe even a family when you’re ready.”

I almost stopped short as the breath left my lungs.

Something inside me burst open when the word _family_ fell from Scott’s mouth. It shocked me to the core, and I wasn’t entirely sure if it excited me or terrified me.

Because I could _see it._

I could see myself with Liam, on the porch in ten years. I saw us laying together on a chaise facing the backyard, watching our children play in the fields with the dog at sunset. I could hear their laughter and see the chestnut brown of their hair. I could _see it._

And it made me want to cry, because it was something so perfect. Something I never even knew I wanted.

But it was a complete fairytale ending, I reminded myself sharply. There was no way life could turn out that perfect. Not for someone like me, not with my history. I wasn’t cut out for it.

“Not quite yet.” I managed to answer Scott finally, coming back from my daze as the sun passed overhead.

It was like he seemed to sense that the topic had unsettled me, because the conversation died off comfortably after that. We didn’t say much for the rest of the afternoon, searching and smelling as we strode through the streets.

We caught a hint of Liam here and there as we moved further north, but scouring every single avenue in town concluded that he was no longer around. I couldn’t feel him anywhere.

Malia and Corey never called with news, either. The only phone call Scott received was one from Stiles to confirm that they had successfully contacted border patrol in Idaho, _and_ reported the Burnett couple as kidnappers to the Great Falls Police Department.

Sheriff Stilinski had ordered surveillance for the silver Mercedes in Beacon Hills, with direct instructions to stop and search the vehicle upon spotting it. He also issued a warrant for the arrest of the Burnetts, which caused a surge of satisfaction to rise in my chest.

They _deserved_ to have the cops on their asses.

The pack rendezvoused back at our apartment complex and Mason, Corey and Malia all said their goodbyes, having done all they could do. I received a few encouraging pats to my shoulder – which I made a conscious effort to accept without flinching – before Scott turned to look at me.

“Do you want someone to stay at the house with you? You know, just so you’re not alone?”

I had to resist the primal urge to snap at him and drive him away. Habit told me to mock him, to sneer and say something hurtful to stop him from caring. But I closed my eyes and told myself what Scott had told me earlier: _I have a heart. I just need to let it beat._

“No, thank you.” I said softly, backing up a few steps towards the building. “I just need some time to myself.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Stiles frowned in concern.

“Being left alone with traumatising thoughts can cause a lot more damage than you think.” Lydia counselled sensitively in conjunction. “You won’t know it’s eating at you until it’s too late.”

_It already is._

“I appreciate the concern, but I think I’ll live.” I shook my head. “I have work in the morning so. I’ll see you.”

Scott opened his mouth to argue, and I didn’t blame him because I knew I was in no state to be going to work. But I needed to keep moving. I needed to stay busy.

The three of them looked at me regretfully as I turned my back and headed for the stairs to the second floor. I could hear them talking softly from the balcony above as I keyed my way inside the apartment, locking the door behind me.

The house was silent and dark until I flicked a light on, the different smells of the pack members swirling in the air around me. They drowned out the residual smell that Liam had made, and I wasn’t sure if that made me feel better or worse.

Either way, the situation was killing me.

I laid my keys beside Liam’s, looking down fondly at them. I fingered the plastic lacrosse stick upon his keychain and felt my heart breaking in two.

This felt like mourning. It felt like Liam had died, and all the reminders of his existence were hitting me in the face.

I didn’t pay any mind to the empty cries from my stomach, toeing my shoes off and moving down the hallway instead. I let myself into the dark bedroom on the right and stripped down to my underwear.

Pulling back the sheets, I slid into Liam’s bed and settled onto my side to bury my face into the pillow. The scent overwhelmed me, a force rising and expanding in my chest that I soon realised was the need to squeeze my eyes shut and scream.

I watched ahead, out the window at the town below while my shoulders trembled under the sheets. My body stiffened with the effort to suppress the sobs threatening to cry from my core. The moon looked down upon me, shining in my eyes as I tried my hardest not to break, lying in my mate’s bed without him there.

_I will not cry._

I repeated it like a mantra in my head, shutting my eyes and holding onto myself under the bedsheets. I rocked back and forth, cradling myself as the angst pulled me apart limb by limb.

_I will not cry._

I said it over and over again. Even as one burning droplet of water escaped the corner of my eye and rolled over the bridge of my nose.

Over and over and over, I said it.

_I will not cry._


	13. CHAPTER TWELVE

Liam’s POV

  
I woke inside a long, dark steel box. The air was cold and sterile, sharp and painful inside my lungs as I gasped towards the low ceiling.

It was narrow inside, with barely enough room for me to turn over onto my stomach. My fingers spread out over the cool metal underneath me as I looked around for a way out. I looked for gaps in the corners or flaws in the walls until...  _there._

A light could be seen beyond the edges of the rectangular door before me, so I started bashing at it. It took a few forceful shoves before the latch finally broke, the door swinging open to let me scuttle out and onto the floor.

I turned immediately and crawled backwards to see what the hell I’d been trapped inside, confused to find that I was inside a _morgue._

I glanced around me in fright, the room dark and silent except for one tall surgery lamp, shining a bright circle onto the floor while it buzzed gently. Then I recognised where I was.

I was in the Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital.

And I didn’t understand. I was in _Montana_ last I checked, strapped to a bed and terrified.

I lifted my wrists to find that the abrasions and bruises from my chains were gone. Somehow I’d healed, but… had I _died?_ Did I die in Montana before the pack found me, and they brought my body back home?

I needed to go, I needed to find them and tell them I was _alive._

I stood up, noticing I’d been dressed in fresh clothes. A grey t-shirt stretched across my chest and dark jeans clung to my legs, but I was barefoot. It made no sense.

I turned, trying to spot the door when a voice rang out. It was female, a loud whisper that carried through from the hallway outside the morgue. My heart stuttered in confusion when I translated what she’d said.

_“The-ooo.”_

Why would they be calling for Theo? 

I stepped warily across the room to the swinging doors, slowly reaching out to push one side open. It creaked and echoed down the hallway outside, startling me in the otherwise dead quiet.

I glanced down to the right before slowly emerging into the corridor. There was no one to be seen, all the lights off and no patients’ heartbeats sounding from the other rooms.

“ _The-ooo.”_

It came from the left, down towards a set of waiting chairs at the nurse’s station. I stared cautiously for a moment, wondering why they kept calling for my mate. The silence waited for me, and so I started stepping forward. The soft tap of my bare feet on the linoleum was the only sound in the entire hallway. I passed through an open set of doors and the hall grew darker, my steps slowing down as I neared the end… but then my wolf perked up.

“ _The-ooo.”_

They were behind me.

I turned immediately, eyes widening in alarm when I spotted a filthy, sopping wet girl. She was deathly pale with dark hair, and her face was somewhat recognisable. She seemed familiar, like I’d seen those eyes and lips before. But then I noticed that water wasn’t the only thing she was dripping onto the floor. Her entire _chest_ was a hollow, open wound.

And suddenly it all made sense to me.

I looked down at the clothes I wore once more, took in the bare feet below me. Raised my hands and turned them over.

I _was_ Theo _._

And this heartless girl was the sister he’d left to freeze in a river. But why were we here? Why was I seeing this?

I didn’t get to ask myself anymore questions before Tara crawled towards me – towards  _Theo_ – on hands and feet, dark brown hair dripping water onto the floor as she raced. Theo tried to step backwards, tried to turn to run, but she was upon him within seconds.

He fell back as she crawled over him with a hiss, a cry from the impact leaving his throat. He gasped and panted frantically underneath her as she perched atop him, and I watched through his eyes as she looked down upon his face fondly, almost gently. But then she looked down, eyes scouring over the grey t-shirt across his chest before reaching down to his sternum and digging her _fingers_ into him.

Theo gasped underneath her when she dug into his flesh, crying out and yelling in pain as she reached down inside before taking firm grasp of his heart and tearing it out. I felt the panic inside him as she held it over his body, dripping blood and still beating in her hand. I tasted the blood on my mate’s tongue as it bubbled up from his throat, staring at the heart his sister had stolen back in horror as he grew weaker underneath her.

His vision faded to black, soon snapping back open to see… _what?_

The same chamber in the morgue?

The entire encounter played over and over and _over_ , Theo’s sister chasing him down to rip out his heart. It was traumatising, and no matter where he ran or how fast, Tara would catch him and knock him down. And I understood what I was seeing, saw the symbolism behind it.

This was what had happened to him in Hell. I was seeing his nightmare, living the awful reality that he’d experienced when Kira put him in the ground. And all it did was prove to Theo that he was heartless, and soon he came to believe it.

After watching his sister kill him for the thousandth time, he looked at her with tears, _actual tears_ in his eyes, and told her.

“You don’t have to stop.”

The words echoed through the dream, my heart hurting because I _knew him_. He didn’t deserve this, not anymore.

But finally, I awoke in the real world.

I gasped for my breaths as my eyes snapped open, quickly looking around to find myself back in the Burnetts’ lab. The lights were still off around me, telling me it was still only early in the morning. A sweat from the dream had soaked through my t-shirt in a long patch down my sternum and I rested my head back down onto the pillow to breathe out the fright from my lungs.

_Shit._

My wolf was aching with renewed sadness inside me as I stared at the ceiling and replayed what I’d seen in my head. I always knew he felt absolutely awful for the things he’d done in the past, but I never imagined that _that_ was what he’d gone through. That was the thing to change him when I brought him back up from the ground.

But why did _I_ just dream it? _How?_

I felt a tingle in the mating scar Theo had left on my throat and suddenly it clicked to me. I was seeing _his_ dreams that he’d been having, through the connection we had. He was asleep in Beacon Hills, in our home, dreaming of the nightmare I’d never known was still plaguing him. And I was able to see it.

He’d never woken in a fright beside me, not once. But neither had _I._ I hadn’t had a nightmare since he moved in with me, so maybe… maybe it had been the same for him. We had kept each other’s fears away and now that we were separated, they were returning.

I yanked in irritation against my chains and blew out a helpless breath. I wanted to touch the scar he’d left on me. I wanted to run my fingers over it and make sure it still existed, but my hands were firmly restrained on either side of my head.

My hair had grown out so long lately that it fell over the scar and concealed it from view. The Burnetts hadn’t noticed it yet, and I wanted to keep it that way. I refrained from mentioning Theo at all, no matter how desperately I wanted to taste his name on my tongue. I wouldn’t let these people find out that he was my lover, my mate.

It killed me to keep him locked inside my head as a memory, but told myself it was solely to protect him. The very last thing I wanted was for them to go after him, to drag him into this Hell with me just to emotionally torture me – because given the chance, I knew that they would.

I shifted my hips upon the mattress below me, my face pinching in discomfort as the nausea I’d had for an entire week woke inside me.

I felt sluggish, exhausted and uncomfortable. My stomach was an unsettled cyclone of nausea, constantly upset and now even swollen. I was managing to puke several times a day without fail, the sickness a constant battle inside me that was slowly sucking my life away. I was starting to believe that it was the hormones Edith had been pumping me with every day – they were fucking up my system and preventing me from recovering from the gastro.

The couple had been very persistent in trying to feed me something solid, but I wouldn’t take it. My _stomach_ wouldn’t take it. So they’d resorted to injecting me with vitamins and supplements. I was going on my fourth day without food and it was ruining me – my stomach remained empty, but somehow I still had something to throw up every few hours. I was losing more fluids than I was ingesting.

I took slow, deep breaths to calm down the nausea, distracting myself from it by glancing around the laboratory. I looked for a way out, as I had done every single day that I spent chained up. I knew it was fruitless; even if I managed to get out of the chains, I didn’t know what to expect when I ascended those stairs and opened the door.

There could be mountain ash or there could be soldiers. I wouldn’t be prepared, and definitely wasn't strong enough to fight for very long, if at all.

I needed _Theo._

The ache of absence in my bones was becoming stronger every day, and I knew it was because I’d been taken far away from my mate. I couldn’t feel him close by and instincts told me that I was hundreds of miles away. It was weakening both my mind and my body, even starting to cause physical pain. It came in the form of sharp pains inside my chest. Part of me was concerned I had heart problems but it wasn’t like there was anything I was able to do about it.

I could feel the rope that connected Theo and I, the one inside my stomach. I could feel it snapping, tearing and falling to pieces and deteriorating more for each hour I spent missing him. The anxiety I felt in this place alone without him was starting to damage me, I knew.

My wolf stirred inside me, growling in my chest at our containment in the chains. He was just as distressed as me, and I felt the anger rising in my veins, burning hotter for every second longer that I thought about being kept away from Theo. I’d been holding it in as best I could, but maybe it was time to just let it out.

I let the anger grow fiercer and stronger, tears stinging in my eyes at the thought of my future in this Hell. I would never get to see the pack, or Scott, or my mate ever again. The agony expanded inside my heart, so I released it.

I _roared._

I felt my muscles tensing as my wolf came to the surface, the gold of his eyes lighting my bedsheets in the dark room. I let him make noise, roaring and snarling through the lab as loud as he could. My limbs yanked and pulled at the thick chains and I heard them clanking and groaning under my wolf’s power. 

Lights turned on behind the door atop the staircase as I woke up my captors. I howled and bellowed until I was breathless, my head spinning and lightening as the effort weakened me. It sent my heart into overdrive and I felt my limbs slacking off.

Someone stormed through the door and down the staircase, and I panted as Mark approached furiously in his bedclothes. I snarled and snapped my teeth at him viciously as he stalked closer to my bed, letting out one last thunderous roar while I could and just hoping that the sound would carry through the open door.

Two firm hands closed around my throat, squeezing at my windpipe until no more sound could expel from my chest. Mark’s eyes were dark and livid before me as he crushed the air out of me.

“I swear to god,” He rumbled with a slow shake of his head. “If we didn’t need you healthy and unharmed, I would inject your veins with an entire syringe of _silver_ for every fucking noise you made.”

I tried my hardest to draw breath, gasping around his hands as white spots clouded my vision and the fight left my body. My wolf’s teeth retracted and the glow left my irises before the geneticist let me go.

I fell to the pillows with a shuddering suck of breath, my chest rising and falling rapidly while my captor stood over me. I glared up at him, the testosterone in the room around us thickening until it was suffocatingly strong. The both of us tried to dominate the other, my wolf trying his very best to overpower Mark from inside me.

“Your little friends down in California are rather persistent in trying to save you.” He uttered down to me. “They sent the police after us. I was searched outside my goddamn workplace before they came and rummaged through our _home._ ”

I panted up at him, hope stirring inside me at the news. They were _trying._ They knew I was in Montana.

Mark must’ve seen the light come to my eyes, because he scowled down at me and lowered a hand to my belly. He pressed his palm down hard and stirred the nausea from its rest, watching satisfactorily while I tried weakly to struggle away and dislodge him.

“No one will come to save you.” He murmured down to me while I squirmed. “And very soon, you’ll be much too swollen to even _think_ of trying to escape. Your pack and your true alpha will _never_ find you. If I ever hear you trying to roar and call for them again, I will gag you and keep you sedated until it’s time to give birth. Do you understand?”

My arms and legs yanked at their chains while my wolf’s eyes glowed into his once more, low growls leaving my throat while he sneered down at me.

“You’re not as strong as you think you are.” Mark spat. “You will break before anyone gets the slightest idea of where you are. You’re merely a puppet on our string and nothing more. You will be _worthless_ when we’re done with you.”

With that last comment, he lifted his hand from my stomach and straightened up, turning to leave the lab with his shoulders squared in victory. I huffed and seethed after him, watching him pause at the top of the staircase when my voice rang out loud and clear.

“I’m stronger than you _think.”_

He stood still for a split second before continuing through the door and slamming it shut behind him. My wolf stayed on the surface for a long few minutes after he left, the anger inside me taking forever to dissipate.

I calmed down in the darkness, my breaths slowly growing more regular as I rested my head into the pillows and drifted off to sleep in exhaustion. I laid there, half-awake and feeling my body soothe as Theo’s scent washed over me, a phantom smell conjured from my memories. I savoured it as it calmed my unsettled stomach and stroked over my heart, inhaling the warm buttery cinnamon of his skin and the sweet cosiness of his laundry detergent. I could almost hear his voice and feel his touch upon my temple, could almost feel the way he would thumb at my lips and brush my hair back.

But it was interrupted.

His scent turned sharp, to disinfectant and latex. His touch spread downwards, nails digging in as they trailed to my stomach before sinking in and _wringing_ at my insides.

I woke again with a cry of pain, my eyes trying to focus in the dark to find my abdomen. I yanked on my chains, my hands begging to grip onto the skin where the ache was quickly turning into a searing blaze.

The pain was a tremendous, excruciating cramp that flared across my entire stomach, from the top of my ribs right down to my pubic bone. It scorched deep and low between my hipbones, instantly raising a fever upon my skin. It drew gasps and desperate groans from my throat as it came and went in waves.

It felt like someone had a blade, carving and scraping at my insides while another person took hold of my organs and squeezed.

It came and went, got worse and worse.

I suffered through it for at least fifteen minutes before Edith and Mark came down to see what was wrong. By that time my groans had turned into helpless cries as the pain tore at me.

I was sure I was dying.

The married couple appeared on either side of me, Edith on the left and Mark on the right. They leaned over me, their hands roaming over my face and touching my throat and pressing into my stomach.

I tried to listen while the anatomists analysed me together, checking my vitals and trying to ask me what I was feeling.

“Where’s the pain, darling?” Edith tried, her fingers brushing over the boiling skin of my forehead while I shouted. “Just give us one word.”

I managed to unclench my teeth long enough to grit out, _“Everywhere!”_

The couple exchanged glances immediately.

“It’s definitely abdominal, his stomach muscles are clenched firm.”

A hand touched my face.  
  
“Do you have an appendix?”

I shook my head as the wave ended, the pain lessening just enough for me to get a few words out.

“Had it… out when I was… four.”

“What are our other possibilities then?” Edith asked her husband. “We’ve got possible gallstones, a stomach ulcer, maybe even thyroid issues?”

A desperate whine left my chest as the fire returned.

“Pancreatitis,” Mark continued while Edith tried to comfort me. “Possible side effects from the hormonal injections, maybe even upper body cancer.”

They then started to rule the options out one by one.

“Upper body cancer and stomach ulcers are unlikely, his body heals at too extravagant a rate for that.”

Someone pressed into my throat.  
  
“The thyroid isn’t swollen, glands aren’t in spasm.”

Another hand pressed above my navel.  
  
“Does this make it worse, Liam?”

I shook my head while the sweat ran down my straining temple.

“I’m taking bloods.” Mark’s voice announced. “Hold his arm still.”

I barely felt the pinch of the needle over the riot inside my gut. Mark disappeared and Edith came into view, worrying down at me while I grit my teeth and cried out.

She turned and disappeared to the overhead cupboard, retrieving a clear vial and extracting the fluid into another syringe.

“I’m injecting a shot of morphine to help with the pain, sweetheart. Stay still for me.”

I felt the drug running into my veins, much cooler than my own blood as it spread and reached my heart. Immediately I felt it reducing the pain, my head spinning from the frantic breaths heaving in my chest.

Edith sat by me and started brushing my hair back – exactly like Theo used to. If I closed my eyes, it almost felt just like him and it broke my heart. Tears pooled as the pain subsided, the ache in my soul hurting more than my stomach.

 _I need him. I need him so much._  

“Please,” I moaned up at my captor. “Please let me go. Let me go home.”

“I can’t let you do that, sweetheart.” She cooed down at me, her fingers continuing in my hair. “You have a job to do here.”

“ _Please.”_ I begged as the tears ran. “I’ll do it, I’ll give you your babies, just let me do it at home! I need to be with the people I love, they’re my family!”

Edith smiled above me, wiping my tears away with tender fingers.

“You can do it with your family,” She said. “You’ll have a _new_ one, right here.”

_No. Nononono._

I shook my head at her, shutting my eyes through the desperation. _I need to get away._

I concentrated on the darkness behind my eyes, resisting the nausea in my gut and forcing myself to think of something to calm me down. I let my mind take me away, wishing and hoping that it would help me escape reality.

I started reliving my memories with Theo, right from the very start. I saw him on the night we met, remembered the way he’d looked soaking wet with the rain. I remembered the jacket he’d worn – black with red plaid sleeves – and the low cut t-shirt that hugged his pecs and revealed the dip of his collarbones. I could even remember the shine of blood on his jeans after fighting the blue-clawed werewolf with Scott.

We’d looked so young, so clean-shaven and fresh-faced.

I escaped the real world around me and immersed myself in the past, losing myself to the memories I kept locked up in my mind. I slowly lost consciousness, drifting off as my make-believe Theo smiled at me and leaned in to press a kiss to my forehead.

 

***

  
Theo’s POV  
  


It had been almost an entire week since Liam was taken.

I’d spent the majority of my time trying to distract myself from the nagging thoughts in my head, the ones begging me to just jump in the truck and _drive._ The impatience to make a move was almost overbearing and my Chimera clawed at the inside of my chest more for each day that passed while we stayed in Beacon Hills and did nothing.

I had at least managed to explain to my boss why I ran out on shift last Sunday, finding it a convenience that she was part of the 80% of town who knew about werewolves. She’d been surprisingly understanding when I told her Liam had been abducted, even offering me time off to search for him.

I declined politely; I needed something to keep me busy and occupied while we weren’t looking for clues and information. It turned out that I could hardly focus, however. I usually turned into a lifeless corpse, staring into nothing while my traumatised nervous system overrode my thoughts. I was allowed to spend the majority of my shifts out the back, away from the customers where the café was quieter.

Stiles had received no news from the Sheriff’s Station concerning the Burnetts, nor from the border security at Idaho. But the police department at Great Falls had spotted the silver Mercedes in town three times since Sheriff Stilinski issued the alert. They’d stopped Mark Burnett to question him on his way into the Benifis Hospital he worked inside, asking to search the vehicle. The geneticist allowed it, but the police found nothing inside – not one weapon, speck of dirt or piece of hair. Not even any grey fibers from the hoodie I knew Liam had been wearing.

The police also paid a visit to the Burnetts residence. According to the information they’d provided Sheriff Stilinski, Edith had answered the door and she’d let them right in when they asked to search the house. The police concluded that there was no sign of the hostage we’d claimed the couple were holding. Every door was opened and every room was checked. And there was no one else in the house but Edith.

The department had actually _scolded_ Sheriff Stilinski over the phone for wasting their time, and warned him not to bother coming to them about the Burnetts again. The news infuriated every single one of us, but it confirmed one thing: they had definitely taken Liam to Montana. They were _there_ , their vehicle was there and so Liam had to be. I knew they had him _somewhere._

Upon learning all the information at Scott’s house during the pack meeting, I had immediately turned to leave and start packing a bag.

“I’m going whether you guys are coming or not.” I shook my head adamantly. “Liam’s _up there_ and I’m going to bring him home.”

“Theo, you need to _stay.”_ Scott had caught me by my arm on the way to the McCalls’ front door. “We have literally no leads and don’t have a clue where to start looking. Getting there is one thing, but knowing where to start is another. It isn’t like we can storm into their house or walk into their jobs. We don’t know how to approach these people and we definitely don’t know our way around Great Falls. We need more information, and we need a plan.”

I whipped around and stared stubbornly into the alpha’s eyes.

“I can’t stay in this town and do _nothing_ when I know Liam’s in Montana.” I asserted firmly. “He’s my goddamn mate and I’m going to look for him, even if I have to do it alone.”

Scott’s eyes softened in understanding because he felt what I felt. Liam was his beta, he cared about him so much and they were so damn close. He wanted to get out there and find him just as much as I did, but logic was holding him back.

“You’re never alone, Theo.” He said softly.

Mason, Corey and Malia approached us near the doorway, their expressions determined.

“We’ll help you.”

Scott turned to his pack members with an uncertain shake of his head.

“You guys really need to stay in school. We don’t know how long this could take, you could miss up to several months worth of schoolwork.”

Malia’s eyes burned stubbornly into her alpha’s.  
  
“We’re _going_ , Scott. This is _Liam_.”

“We can catch up on school.” Mason nodded optimistically. “Two months is only like… four assignments?”

“Around that.” Corey nodded in agreement. “Besides, people are already starting to ask questions. Especially Nolan. He and Liam are co-captains of the lacrosse team and Liam hasn’t been to school in an entire week.”

“Scott, please.” Malia begged softly. “We all need to do this together.”

The brown of his eyes surrendered, giving in to the pleas of his pack. Lydia and Stiles joined the group beside the door.

“I actually have an aunt in Montana.” Lydia mentioned, bringing up the address on her phone. “She’s near Gibson Park, right by the Missouri riverside.”

“Is that in Great Falls?”

Lydia nodded, tapping on her phone screen to bring up a map of the city and pointing.

“It’s northwest of the city centre. Anywhere in Great Falls from there is a fifteen minute drive maximum.”

“And you think your aunt will have room for us?” I checked as we looked over the map in a huddle.

“She’s got a lot of money.” She nodded. “Mom mentioned a six bedroom house, I’m sure we’ll all fit if we bunk together.”

“Can you get into contact with her?” Scott asked. “Ask if she can handle a group of young adults for a few weeks?”

The pack leaned back as the banshee nodded, tapping away.

“Texting her right now.”

Stiles watched over her shoulder with a laid-back nod.

“I’m in. But I think we need to wait at least a couple more days, just to get our facts together, learn a few maps… prepare to enter a whole new state where it’s enemy turf.”

Scott nodded to agree, the rest of the pack seeming on board with the suggestion.

“That gives us plenty of time to prepare.” The alpha approved. “I’m still waiting to hear back from two more people.”

The McCalls’ front door opened behind us and all seven of our heads turned to spot the tall, attractive dark-haired man who stepped inside. He sent a proud smile down at Scott and the pack, stuffing a set of keys into the pocket of his leather jacket.

“Make that _one.”_ Derek corrected, stepping forward to shake Scott’s shoulder fondly. “Can’t say no when family calls.”

Scott grinned and accepted the arm around his shoulders.

“Derek. Thank you for coming.”

“Whenever you need me.” Derek nodded genuinely, looking over the faces of the other pack members. “Where are we on the hunters?”

Scott led Derek into the sitting room where Melissa and Chris greeted him fondly, and the rest of the pack sent me hopeful, encouraging smiles. Scott caught Derek up on the intel and our decision to head north, and that night everyone started preparing.

I kept myself as busy as I could, doing double shifts at work to pass the time quicker. Over the next two days I received several text updates from Scott and Stiles on the status of their plans, and a handful of texts from Mason and Malia asking if I was okay. It was definitely a shock to have them initiating contact, let alone asking about my wellbeing, but it seemed to be the little pick-me-up that I needed. When I felt myself falling too deep into the darkness of my thoughts, a message would happen to chime through and remind me that I wasn’t alone.

 

The pack met outside my apartment complex three days after the meeting, the morning air cool and fresh while the sun shone down on the front road. The group of friends milled about on the sidewalk around three parked vehicles, all with packed bags and food for the road.

I was more than ready to leave, watching them all from Liam’s bedroom window above while they loaded their belongings into the cars. Stiles was driving up to Montana in the Jeep with Scott and Lydia, Mason was taking his car with Malia and Corey, and I was riding with Derek.

We had other people on our team who would come up to Montana later on, when we determined Liam’s exact location. They were essentially on standby.

I’d wanted to drive on my own and take the truck, but the pack had agreed that it was best if I left it locked up in the garage at home. They were genuinely worried that it wouldn’t be safe for me to do the drive, considering I hadn’t been eating or sleeping. We all knew that I wouldn’t stop when I needed to, either, and could definitely cause an accident in my current state of mind.

I was more than comfortable being paired with Derek for the trip. The guy was a lot like me; he was quiet and could do without conversation. We both despised the majority of the world’s population, didn’t usually open up to other people, and liked to speed.

I knew he would be the most easy-going companion to be stuck in the car with for almost twenty-four hours. It would pass by in a comfortable quiet and he wouldn’t ask me questions I couldn’t answer without having an internal breakdown. I’d have time to sit and rest, to brood and get lost in my thoughts as we drew closer and closer to finding my mate.

I glanced away from the group below, looking around Liam’s bedroom fondly.

It was exactly as he’d left it; I’d been careful not to move a thing. In the last few hours while waiting for sunrise, I’d busied myself with tidying up the house. I cleaned the living room, sanitised the bathroom and kitchen, did laundry and even went out to water Liam’s palms and begonias out on our balcony.

I turned and moved towards his bookcase, running my fingers over all the sports trophies and medals upon its surface. I touched upon the spines of his novels and smoothed over the textbooks and homework that he always had his head stuck in.

I then moved over to his bed and laid a hand over his pillow, lifting it to my face and closing my eyes as I inhaled. The scent of his hairwash caused a mixture of agony and butterflies to stir inside my stomach, and the need to find him made me feel sick with desperation.

I told myself that when I came back through our front door, it would be with him in my arms. I looked around the room, my heart aching before I drew the curtains shut and left down the hallway.

“I won’t come home until I’ve found him.” I told the house in a whisper. “I promise.”

I placed Liam’s keys into my backpack along with both our phones, switched the kitchen lights off and locked the door behind me. A nervous breath of anticipation for the trip ahead left my lips, the rush of emotion completely out of character for me before a supernatural mission like this.

I missed the days where I could switch it all off, set my jaw and get on with the job with confidence – but I didn’t miss the way that I _stayed_ like that. This time I wanted to let the emotions come back afterwards.

Besides, this time I felt different about it because the mission _was_ different. I wasn’t off to deceive, manipulate or murder someone. I was off to save Liam, to bring my beta home.

In the past my prime objective had been to fuck over as many lives as possible. But now I was nervous and fearful _because_ lives were on the line. The lives of people I’d started to really care about.

 _Liam’s_ life hung in the balance, and that was enough to terrify me.

“Guys. We ready to go?” Stiles called out from up on the Jeep’s step, a hand on the frame.

Six heads nodded and the pack started moving, separating towards their respective vehicles with waves and smiles to each other. I made to move for Derek’s car before a voice called out to catch my attention.

“Theo.” Scott called out from beside the Jeep. I looked up to find him smiling softly. “How are you?”

_When’s the last time someone asked you how you were?_

I smiled back a little at his profound gesture, nodding firmly.

“Ready.”

Scott nodded back, a proud glint in his determined eyes.

“Good. Safe trip, yeah?”

“You, too.”

The alpha ducked into the backseat of the Jeep before Lydia strapped up in the front passenger, and I turned away to head for Derek. The engine of his black Chevrolet Camaro turned over, all eight cylinders bursting into a low, powerful purr in the street.

I dropped down into the passenger seat beside him, aviators perched on the bridge of his nose. I tucked my backpack down at my feet and shut the door.

He nodded to me, green eyes determined behind his shades.

“You good?”

I pushed the Clubmasters down from my hair, Beacon Hills turning beige from behind the lenses.

I nodded.  
“I’m good.”

We waited, watching in the mirrors while the other pack members settled into the cars behind us, getting comfortable for the long trip ahead. Stiles had to try thrice to start his engine, but soon the last door closed and everyone was ready to leave.

Derek’s teeth showed in a grin beside me as he closed a hand over the wheel.

“Ever heard the hottest sound in the world?” He asked roguishly.

I smirked back, lifting my eyebrows and watching ahead as I braced.

“Let’s hear it.”

The wolf’s foot slammed to the floor and the Camaro screamed, throwing us deep into our seats as the wheels spun before launching us up to 55 in four sweet seconds. We tore away from the curb and sped off, with the beautiful roar of a redlining engine and the screech of tyres in our wake.

_We’re coming, Li._

 


	14. CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Theo’s POV

The drive up to Montana was long and boring, merely serving as extra time for me to sit and dwell on the negative thoughts inside my head.

Derek and I had been at least ten miles ahead of the other two vehicles in our convoy, courtesy of his excessive speeding, but we’d soon learned that Stiles’s Jeep had the absolute worst fuel consumption in the world. We’d made four stops so far, just to sit and wait while he refuelled the old rustbucket.

That wasn’t to say that Derek’s V8 didn’t chew through gas – it did. We’d needed to fill up twice as much as Mason did, needing to check up on the oil and engine fluids at every stop. The Camaro was a piece of work to maintain, especially on such a long trip, but the way it drove made up for that by tenfold.

I was honestly starting to miss the privacy of my truck – not that Derek was awful company; he was exactly what I needed. It was just becoming difficult to conceal it when my thoughts took their negative turn every half hour and my scent would permeate the air with angst and distress. I felt bad that he had to suffocate in it beside me, but he was kind enough not to bring it up.

I felt exhausted, my skull aching with an oncoming migraine and my chest contracting with sharp, hot pains every time I thought about Liam. My mind was a constant cycle of never-ending thoughts and emotions, my body growing stiff and tired from the stress. I hadn’t let myself close my eyes in at least three days, unable to settle down enough to sleep. Even when I did sleep, the horrid dreams that plagued me would have me waking up screaming Liam’s name.

On a slightly lighter note, the rope inside my stomach that tugged towards him was slowly loosening up – which meant that we were definitely getting closer. It eased just a portion of the pain inside my chest and I hoped that Li could feel it too, hoped that he was getting some relief from the agony.

I leaned back against the passenger seat, closing my eyes and trying to rest my aching head in the 3 a.m. darkness. Derek’s heartbeat was steady and slow beside me, so I focused on it in order to slow my mind down.

Liam’s sky blue eyes stared back at me in the darkness behind my eyelids, but instead of fighting it, I stared back for once. I let my heart ache as I looked into the roots of my beautiful beta’s eyes, counting every single one of his eyelashes to the steady thump of Derek’s pulse.

I hadn’t realised I’d dozed off until the Camaro started slowing down beneath me.

I blinked awake, lifting my head to see a lighter sky as Derek pulled into a gas station in southern Idaho. The sun wasn’t up yet, but it was getting close. The time on the dash read _04:53_ as we slowed to a stop beside a gas pump and killed the engine.

“I thought you’d never shut your eyes.” He told me softly, pushing down the windows before unstrapping and getting out of the car.

I pressed my fingers into my eyes with a short yawn, my headache having calmed down a little with the short nap. Derek leaned against my door while he pumped gas and I looked up when Stiles and Mason pulled up around us to do the same.

“How long have you been an insomniac?” Derek asked calmly, his eyes on the pump meter.

I blinked a few times, watching ahead as Scott and Lydia climbed out from the Jeep to stretch their legs. Mason and Malia joined them, and it became clear to me that they were all rotating to take turns behind the wheel. Derek had been driving us for an entire eighteen hours, only stopping when we pulled over for all Stiles’s fuel stops.

“Since always.” I responded flatly to his question; having a life like mine meant certain nightmares. NIghtmares meant I dreaded falling asleep. “Being with Liam has changed that, but…”

_He’s gone._

Derek nodded at the pause in my reply, requiring no words to finish the sentence.

I took a deep breath and stared out the windshield, watching while Scott and Malia hugged in the conversational circle that had formed between all the pack members beside the Jeep. I still found it difficult to believe that Malia was actually being affectionate towards someone, but more than that, the sight of them made me ache.

I could see myself and Liam standing with that same group of people. If he were here, I knew I’d be holding him to my own chest with the same smile and the same kind of colour in my cheeks as the teens in front of me. We would be hugging just like that, maybe even a little more affectionately. But Liam wasn't here. If he was with me, we wouldn't have a reason to be at this stupid gas station in south fucking Idaho. 

_I fucking miss him._

The ache inside my heart was phenomenal. The fact that I could feel Liam getting closer and the knowledge that soon I’d be back in the same town as him was doing nothing to help with the desperation I felt to _find_ him. If anything it made it more powerful, more urgent. It was going to ruin me.

I didn’t realise Derek had left to pay for his fuel until his tall figure joined the circle in front of me. I watched as he slung an arm around Stiles’s shoulders, the younger man squirming under his touch. Derek’s sharp features were shadowed in the hazy mid-darkness of dawn, his smile dimpling in his cheeks as the conversation continued.

They stood and spoke together for another two minutes before my driving companion turned to return to his Camaro, the rest of the pack dispersing to their respective vehicles as the conversation ended.

He surprised me by approaching the passenger side window and opening my door.

“Come on, Chimera. You drive.”

My brows rose, but I didn’t argue. I lifted myself up and out of the seat before rounding the hood and folding myself back down behind the wheel. It felt good, the potential of so much power before me. I adjusted the seat before starting the engine, Derek’s legs being a fair bit longer than my own.

The taillights on Stiles’s Jeep illuminated in front of us and I strapped in, readjusting the sunglasses in my hair while the powerful hum of the engine below me cheered me up. It vibrated into me, the sharp pains in my chest fading to the back of my mind as I shifted to first and took the lead.

I enjoyed the acceleration as I floored the Camaro up the road and back onto the highway, the force and power under my hands bringing a release of some form. Every second longer that I spent with my foot down and my hand over the wheel was less ground that I was putting between me and Liam. Every second, I grew closer and closer to my mate.

Derek stretched out in the passenger seat, seemingly comfortable and unconcerned about having an emotionally unstable, ex-murderous Chimera behind the wheel of his forty-thousand dollar Camaro. The wolf rested quietly beside me as the sun came up over Idaho, his eyes shut and his breaths even.

I was starting to feel better now that I was distracted by something – sitting and doing absolutely nothing for the past eighteen hours had been mentally damaging. Stiles texted that the Jeep would probably need one more fuel stop before we reached Great Falls. I estimated it to be in almost four hours time, if the previous stop times were any indication. I settled into my seat, keeping my mind distracted by the broken centre lines that sped past on the road below me.

I marked them all as extra space that I was closing between me and my baby.

 

***

  
Liam’s POV  
  


I was wide awake by eight o’clock this morning, Mark and Edith having turned the lights on super early to wake me up.

It had officially been nine days since I’d woken up in this prison – and this morning the Burnetts were preparing to perform the insemination procedure on me.

My bones were heavy with dread and I kept my mouth firmly shut when the couple tried to feed me. It merely resulted in having more injections pumped in through the back of my hand, but at least it wasn’t anything extra in my stomach that I could throw up.

My restraints had been loosened after my third day here, the Burnetts allowing me two metres of chain for each limb. I could turn onto my sides, extend my arms, cross them, touch my thighs, bend my knees and reach objects on the table beside my bed. It was still captivation, but at least I wasn’t losing circulation from having my hands up on the head railing all the time.

But extended chain lengths were where the pleasantries ended for my body. Every part of me felt absolutely awful.

My body was weak and heavy, my spine aching and my stomach constantly sore. The sudden, excruciating bursts of pain I’d had the other morning had continued for the next three days afterwards. It occurred at exactly the same time as the first and had been ridiculously draining, requiring all my energy just to deal with the burning sears of pain deep inside my abdomen. The Burnetts hadn’t found out what it was from, the blood Mark had taken coming up with nothing upon testing. I feared it was something bad; nothing could hurt _that much_ only to have something non-threatening come out of it.

My deteriorating condition only reinforced the fear that something terrible was happening inside me. My stomach had continued to swell actively over the past week, feeling fuller and more nauseating for every day that they’d continued to inject me with the hormones. It was frightening me more for the higher my belly rose, the swelling beginning low over my pubic bone.

It was sore, already rounded, and towered at least five centimetres higher than my hipbones – hipbones that I couldn’t see anymore unless I felt for them. My skin was smooth and starting to firm up as it stretched, the fine hairs that led down to my groin growing darker. I knew something inside me had to be reacting very badly to the injections, and the fear grew worse every day that one of my organs was failing. I was afraid that it was damaged, expanding inside me before it would ultimately rupture and send me to my death.

The Burnetts didn’t notice the swelling from underneath the large hospital shirt they’d dressed me in a week ago, but I did. I saw it and felt it.

I was turning fragile, unable to eat any more than one meal a day and successfully keep it down. I still threw up and my body was aching and trembling while it slowly broke down and deteriorated – because I was sure that was what was happening to me. I was diminishing.

There was a distinct change in the way I’d felt over the last two days especially, my heartrate staying permanently elevated and my breaths becoming harder to draw. I felt so damn awful, and now… _this._

Mark and Edith were going to try to impregnate me. Right _now._

My breaths fell shorter and my insides panicked as the married couple descended the stairs to the lab, my tired heart pounding a little faster in fear.

It was happening. They were about to start.

I should have grown used to the fear by now – even had a whole nine days to come to terms with my imminent future – but it still made my veins jump and my eyes prickle with tears, because _I didn’t want this_.

That was another thing that had changed in me: I couldn’t stop _crying._

I didn’t cry, ever. Rarely would anyone see me cry.

But over the last nine days I’d cried at least a dozen times.

I felt ridiculously more emotional than usual and it was almost impossible to prevent it from showing on my face, but I assumed it was just because my entire fucking life had been turned upside down and dropped into the dirt. I was terrified, I’d been taken away from my home and my mate, and these anatomists had been pumping me full of hormones.

My system was in complete shock, and understandably so.

I watched from the bed as Mark wheeled over two low chairs, producing a silver tray with various objects. I could see a syringe, a large clamp-like object, a tube of lubricant, alcohol wipes, paper towels and… _oh._ An airtight container of thick, white fluid.

The sight of it made me feel _sick_. Sick enough to lean over the side of the mattress and gasp as the nausea strengthened inside me.

Edith moved quickly to my side, her voice calling down to me with almost maternal concern as she held up a bowl for me to take.

“Beautiful boy, you’re still being sick?” She knelt beside my bed, using a hand to push back the long drapes of my hair. “Something’s really upset your system.”

I didn’t even try to jerk away from her touch anymore, letting her hold my hair back while I threw up.

“He hasn’t _consumed_ enough of anything to warrant having an upset system.” Mark muttered while he set up a long flashing probe and connected it to a screen. “It’s stress, nothing more. He needs to get his shit together.”

My hands trembled around the sickbowl while Edith shook her head at her husband, her thin fingers carding through my hair affectionately and raking it all back.

“You’re too harsh, honey.” She tutted tenderly. “He’s had a lot of adjusting to do since joining us. He’s had a big shock.”

_To put it politely._

“Crying and refusing to take care of himself isn’t helping his wellbeing, mental _or_ physical. He’s being immature.”

“Don’t listen to him, sweetheart.” Edith cooed down to me as I laid back against the pillows. Her fingers stroked over my pale cheek. “Mark didn’t grow up with very tender parents. He’s a little rough around the edges until you get to know him. _I_ think you’ve been very strong.”

I merely looked up at her while my chest rose and fell with exhaustion, just watching her quietly while she touched my face and smiled down at me.

I felt like an empty shell.

I felt defeated, no longer having any fight left in me to defend myself and my body against whatever Edith tried to do to me. The first few days in the lab, my wolf and I had been fierce and defensive, but now I just slumped against the pillows. I accepted her touches and strokes and listened blankly to her words. I hadn’t spoken a single word to either of them in days.

“He should have at least a dozen eggs by now.” Edith told her husband as he donned a pair of latex gloves. “Most of them should take.”

I stared up at her.  
“You’re not going to check?”

Her eyes shone down at me and her fingers continued in my hair.

“Darling boy, we’ve done this close to a hundred times. Both on humans and werewolves. Checking is simply time that we don’t want to waste.”

She leaned down to press a kiss to my hair stroking it once more before stepping back and helping her husband with a large, tall structure. They wheeled it up to my bed and positioned it over my lower body, and it took me a moment before realising that it had straps. They were going to lift my legs and bind my ankles to it.

_Fuck no…_

My eyes widened and my heart felt uneasy as it raced.

Just the thought of being in such a vulnerable position was not only intrusive of my privacy, but humiliating and _embarrassing._ I was going to have my damn legs up like some woman in the gynaecologist’s office while these two psychotic surgeons opened me up and spilled some other man’s DNA into me.

I quickly lifted the sickbowl and vomited again.

_I can’t do this. I can’t I can’t I can’t._

I swallowed down as much of the nausea as I could, tipping my head back to breathe deeply before I noticed something. Something inside my chest. The tension that had been wrapped so tightly around my heart since being separated from Theo… it was _loosening._

Slowly, barely, but it was coming undone. It was letting me breathe. The little rope that had been tugging and pulling at my gut was easing up, and I realised with wide eyes that it was _Theo._ He was getting _closer._

He and the pack were coming and I could feel it through our bond.

A short, dearly missed flutter of joy burst inside my heart as I put everything together with gasps of relief from my lungs. Theo was _coming_ , he and the pack knew that the Burnetts had taken me north and they were all coming for me.

_Theo, I feel you. Please, I’m here._

I hadn’t realised my ankles had been bound above my hips, too caught up in that moment of pure hope and happiness for anything else in the world to matter. But that moment was cut short by horror and dread, because I then realised that there was no way the pack would find me before these two surgeons were done with this procedure.

When they found me, they’d find me _pregnant._

The tears stung in my eyes once more, and the happy breath left me in a long, deflating huff from my lungs. I felt hands touching me as I tried to stop my limbs from trembling, but they trembled anyway. The first tear fell when a long electric probe was pressed sharply past my rim, the stretch feeling nothing like what I was used to. This felt volatile, unwanted and unwelcome.

The probe pressed in further and an uncomfortable moan left my throat, my hips squirming as I tried to dislodge it. A pair of hands held me in place, however.

“We need you to stay still, honey.” Edith’s voice rang out pleasantly.

I gasped and tried to shift away, the probe deepening and violating me further until finally stopping. The tears fell and I inhaled with an upset sniffle as I looked past my thighs to see that the probe was actually a camera. I could see the flesh of my damn insides on the screen, could see the bulge of my prostate upon my inner walls and the thin, discreet little seam of what they had called my cervix.

I bit down on my tongue to suppress the whimper of distress and reluctance as something else was inserted into me. At first it wasn’t much of an extra addition, but then it _opened._

It stretched me apart and I gasped, a distraught breath rasping through the room as I lifted my head and tried to pull away. My ankles yanked on the structure above me, my hips jerking as I panicked at the harsh, burning stretch.

“Shh, stay still. Stay still.”

Edith’s hands held me down again, the terrified cries starting to beg from my lips as I shook my head desperately.

“No, no, _please no!_ ” I sobbed. “ _Please don’t,_ _I can’t!”_

“Just a little longer and it’ll all be done.” Edith cooed, as though the idea _soothed_ me. “You’re doing great, my beautiful boy.”

“ _I can’t! Please stop! **Stop!**_ ”

“Edith, keep him still!” Mark’s voice growled out as I writhed and pulled.

“I’m trying, he’s just in shock.”

“Please, no! I don’t want to, _I don’t want to!”_

Mark’s hands closed around my hips, gripping hard enough to bruise.

“If you don’t keep still I will fucking _sedate you!”_ He boomed between my legs.

I had no choice but to give in, my head falling back against the pillows as the desperate, heaving gasps left my throat in sobs and cries. The panic washed over me as yet another instrument was pushed up inside me, and I couldn’t stop myself from watching on the screen as the head of Mark’s syringe came into view. It was full to the brim with the thick white fluid, the nozzle already spewing droplets onto my walls.

The tears ran over the bridge of my nose and I flinched in pain when the syringe pressed against the concealed opening on the screen. It was a very sharp, uncomfortable pain and I could feel it deep inside my lower stomach as he pushed and prodded at my cervix again and again.

It took one more nudge before I felt my insides start to contract and ache, and I watched with wide eyes as the tiny hole started stretching and opening on the screen. _No way._

They’d been right.

It was true, right there on the screen in front of me. I had a womb, and it was visible through the two-centimetre diameter that had just opened up for the Burnetts.

I watched with shocked breaths as Mark manoeuvred the camera to carefully press inside. The couple both stared, open-mouthed and in awe at the image on the screen. I had no idea what I was seeing but it was all just pink and fleshy like the inside of someone’s throat when they got an upper endoscopy.

Mark and Edith seemed to know exactly what they were looking at, however.

A confused frown settled over the husband’s brow as he tilted the camera this way and that to see around my uterus.

“His uterine walls have expanded. There’s an unusually vast amount of room inside, it’s not…”

Mark trailed off and the room fell quiet for a long few seconds.

My breaths started to pick up, because silence meant shock. And shock meant something was wrong, unexpected.

“Go _back._ ” Edith demanded suddenly, her voice sharp as she pointed to the screen. “Up and to the right, _go back!_ ”

Mark complied, the frown over his brow increasing as their mouths both dropped open when they found what they were looking for.

“Is that…?”

“No. _No fucking way._ This has to be a mistake.”

I lifted my head, panicked breaths huffing from my chest. This was it, they’d found the problem I’d been feeling inside my body and I was going to die.

“What? What is it?” I asked breathlessly in fear. “What did you find?”

Mark and Edith tore their eyes away from the screen to turn to me, startled as though they’d forgotten I was actually there. They both glared at me in equal parts of anger and disbelief.

“You slept with the Chimera boy?” Edith’s voice was soft, deadly.

My eyes widened in confusion.  
  
“ _What?”_

The woman snapped.  
  
“The Chimera who _protected you!_ Theo Raeken, _did you sleep with him?!”_

Edith’s yells were furious and shocking to my eardrums, my mouth falling open at the question. How could they have known just from looking at a couple of ridges in my uterus?

Mark shook his head as he looked back to the screen, leaning against the back of his chair in furious surprise.

“Why?” I stuttered, wishing one of them would say something. “How?”

Edith took one last glance at the screen before pressing a button on the camera’s wire, the image freezing and saving. Mark took the cum-filled syringe out of my canal and released the device that stretched me open.

I looked anxiously between the two surgeons as they completely stopped and aborted what they’d been about to do to me. _What the hell happened?_

Edith wrenched her gloves off before rounding my legs furiously and untying me. I jolted, my mind panicking at the anger in her movements and was suddenly afraid she was going to hurt me.

She released my legs and forcibly straightened them out on the mattress before reaching down to rip up my hospital shirt. She revealed the swollen expanse of my lower belly and _oh. Oh no._

I looked down at it, then back up to the picture on the screen before my head went light in complete and utter fucking _shock_ as I realised.

_No. No way._

I was an idiot, so naïve not to have _known._

“You’re _pregnant._ ” Edith hissed accusingly, pointing a furiously shaking finger to the swell of my belly. “You’ve already got fraternal twins growing inside your womb.”

I couldn’t breathe.

I stared down at my stomach as my entire body fell numb with shock and surprise. It all made sense. Perfect sense. The tiredness, the throwing up, the change in my appetite, the hormones, the _crying._

_How the hell did I not put this together?_

“The sickness…” I whispered as Mark stood up and wheeled away all the equipment. “I’m… _Theo’s…_ ”

Edith turned her back on me and stalked towards her husband, her shoulders shaking as she gasped.

“How did we miss this?” She asked him while I continued to stare down at myself. “This is what we fucking _do,_ Mark, and we _missed it._ We didn’t consider the possibility of him having a male lover-”

“We couldn’t have known, Edie.”

She shook her head in exasperation.  
  
“Those horrible pains he had last week? That was the fucking implantation. Those twins implanted and we didn’t pick it up!”

“Edith-”

“Our plans are ruined! They’re _ruined!_ All those hormone injections, it was all a _waste of time!”_

Mark turned his wife by the shoulders and forced her to look at him.

“Edith, we could let them grow.” He said firmly. “They might not be ours, but they’re so much more than what we originally planned for. These embryos are half _Chimera._ There’s a chance they won’t have to shift on the full moon and they’ll still have all the traits we wanted. They’ll have _more._ They’ll be the first hybrids, and so unique.”

I was still lightheaded, staring over at the pair of them with a mixture of uncertainty and protectiveness as I listened to them plan to take the only part of Theo I had left away from me.

“But there’s only _two._ ” Edith almost spat sourly. “He can carry so many more.”

Only _two? Only?_

I was going to be sick again for sure.

“But this is a rare chance, Edie. Half trueblood beta, half Chimera. There may only be two, but they’ll be incredible. We can’t pass this by.”

They both looked to me, their eyes shifting between my shocked face and the heaving of my belly as I panted. I wasn’t even sure if this was real. My head spun and I didn’t have a clue how I felt about this.

I was already pregnant, I was having twins. _Theo’s_ twins.

I had two lives inside me, two small bundles of genes that would develop into babies. Actual babies. They’d be living, breathing, existing humans. Half me and half Theo.

I didn’t know what to do with the knowledge, or with the rush of different emotions racing through me.

Part of me wanted to reach down and touch them, to cry because I had Theo with me, _inside me_ , even though he was miles and miles away.

But the other part was filled with dread and fear. I was seventeen years old. I had barely lived my life and I was nowhere near ready to start a family. I’d only just committed to a _relationship_ and now I was… _christ._

I was terrified, because there was absolutely no way Theo would handle it well. There was no way he would want it, no way he would believe that I was capable of getting pregnant. He would never stick around, not after _this._

And deep down, I knew that I didn’t want this either. I never wanted this, not when Mark and Edith wanted to put children into me, and not now that there _were_ children in me – even though they were Theo’s.

But that was it. They were _Theo’s._ And I loved Theo. I loved him so fucking much.

So I loved _them._ I loved the babies. I didn’t even have a choice.

The internal conflict made me sick, and I reached for the sickbowl before throwing up once more with a new kind of energy inside me. Because now I knew why I was being sick, knew what was _making_ me sick.

This was morning sickness. It had been all along.

Edith pulled Mark by his hands to my bedside, approaching me with wonder as their eyes roamed over my stomach.

Suddenly I felt a powerful surge of defensiveness start to renew inside my tired body, determined and fierce. When Edith reached out to touch her fingers to the skin of my belly, I wrenched away and let my wolf surface. I teamed up with him as we let a loud, ferocious roar out to get her away, the sound crushing against her body in our protectiveness.

_Don’t you dare touch us._

She and Mark stumbled backwards in fear and shock, their eyes widening as they took in my fully-shifted form. I snarled and snapped at them viciously until they started to take steps backwards, warning them with furious growls to keep them going until I was satisfied with the distance, satisfied that they couldn’t touch us.

Edith gaped at me in wonder across the few feet that separated us, her husband holding her close in concern. She shook her head slowly.

“There’s no way he’s going to let us take those pups.” She whispered against Mark’s chest.

Mark glared at me as my eyes glowed, the rest of me back in human form while low warning growls left my throat. My chest rose and fell heavily, my fingers gripping the bedsheets as the two of us stared off.

“We’re not letting him go.” He told his wife decidedly. “He’s staying here, and those pups will belong to us as soon as they’re free from his body.”

My eyes burned brighter and the growls in my chest grew louder and more savage in denial of his words. He started to pull his wife away.

“Come on. We’ll leave him be. Let him calm down from the shock.”

“His ankles are loose-”

“Leave them. In the state he’s in, he’ll put a foot right through you before you can hold onto him.”

Edith let her husband guide her away, taking one last lingering glance at me before they disappeared down the lab and up the stairs.

“I’ll be back later, Liam.” She tried to call gently to me. “Get some rest, sweetheart.”

Her words were met with a loud roar as Mark tugged her through the door and shut it firmly, the lights turning off around me and surrounding me in mid-darkness. The lights from the medical equipment lit the floors and my chest rose and fell viciously for a long time after they were gone.

My heart refused to settle but my mind calmed down in the dark. I looked back down over my belly as the confusion and divergence returned inside me.

I shook my head with dread, stretching my newly-freed legs and dropping down on the pillow with a controversial huff.

_What the hell am I going to do?_


	15. CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Liam’s POV

  
I laid on my side all morning, not having slept a wink since being woken up early yesterday. My cheek was smooshed into the pillow and my eyes were heavy, but I didn’t close them. I stared into the tiles, as I had done all day yesterday and all night last night.

It had officially been twenty-four hours since I learned I was pregnant with Theo’s twins. Twenty-four hours since the failed insemination procedure, and also since the Burnetts decided they would take those twins for themselves.

Twenty-four entire hours, yet that time had done nothing to help me even _begin_ to sort out the conflicting thoughts in my head concerning the entire situation. I was still torn between utter dread and joy.

I still didn’t have a clue what to feel; I was hot and cold on the subject. One hour I would lay there and look upon the small swell of my belly, would want to reach down and touch Theo’s creations inside me. But the next hour my eyes would fill with tears – because I knew Theo wouldn’t stick around if he found out. He would leave and our mating bond would be neglected for so long that it broke, and these two little memories he left behind would be all I had left.

It was the most difficult thing I’d ever had to process and the internal conflict was tearing me in two. For now I even tried to comfort myself with the fact that I didn’t have to worry about losing him just yet, but that had somewhat changed. As of early this morning, I _knew_ that he was here, in Montana. I felt him the moment he came within one hundred miles of me, my wolf pacing with joy as he sensed our Chimera nearby.

I missed Theo with all my heart, but couldn’t help but dread our reunion. I knew he would notice my new ‘state’ immediately, and I would then lose him again just as quickly as he’d come.

Either way my life went now, it was going to be pure hell. The fight was slowly leaving me the longer I thought about it all, my hope crumbling to dust as my will to stay alive grew slimmer and slimmer. The only things stopping me from letting myself perish were the pack, and the desperation inside my heart to see Theo again – even if it was just for one last time.

I also realised I couldn’t hear the babies’ heartbeats. Strangely, it concerned me – maybe they just didn’t have any yet, but I found myself pondering over them in an endless cycle as my brain refused to come to terms with it.

They were _alive,_ living off of me. My energy was their energy, my blood was their blood, and whatever I consumed, they consumed. I was their protector, their home, their… _parent._

I shut my eyes, still laying on my side as my own parents floated to the surface of my mind. Even though they left in the end, they’d cared about me. They’d been as good to me as they could. I’d been an awful child, making it difficult for them from the start. I’d taken on no role models and obeyed no rules. It had me thinking, and I started considering the possibility that maybe I wasn’t a good enough person to be a parent to these babies.

I was starting to wish that I’d tried harder to be good to the people who loved me.

Even more, if my own parents ran away from me, maybe my children would too. Maybe I wasn’t worthy of the gift of life that had been bestowed upon me. I could think of much more deserving people of such an ability than myself.

The door atop the laboratory staircase opened, forcing me to cease my negative thought process and open my eyes. I watched, my cheek against the pillow as Edith approached my bedside. She appeared to be fresh-faced and upbeat as usual, but I could smell the stench of anxiety and stress on her skin. She was afraid of me.

She rounded my bed slowly as I rolled onto my back, taking her time in checking my stats before finally looking down to meet my eyes.

“Good morning, sweetness.” She greeted softly, voice hushed. She looked over my face. “How do you feel?”

Despite the brutal fact that this woman had decided upon stealing mine and Theo’s babies away from me, I found myself relatively calm in her presence. I assumed it was because she was female and had always been the more tender one towards me between her and Mark. I also had an idea that it was because she’d been hesitant about the decision, seemingly unwilling to agree to her husband’s suggestion.

Mark was the vicious one. I knew he was the one I needed to protect myself against.

I looked up at her from the pillows, my chest rising and falling softly with my breaths.

“Mentally or physically?” I murmured up to her, watching as her face altered with concern.

“You can tell me about both if you need.” She looked at me almost sadly, stepping closer to my bedside. “Is your mind still in shock?”

I resisted a wry, pessimistic smile. _More like ready to abandon ship._

I looked down to the swell of my belly and my eyebrows lifted just slightly at the dreadful conflict I felt at the sight.

“Something like that.” I almost whispered.

Edith’s brows worried over me before she tentatively reached out for my arm. Her hand closed around it when I didn’t flinch away.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

I kept my eyes down, shaking my head and watching my own breaths rise and fall.

The blonde watched my glum face for a moment before she smoothed down her skirt and lowered herself onto the bed at my waist. She reached up to brush the long hair from my cheeks.

“Well, how’s your body? Do you feel sick this morning?”

I shook my head again, busying myself with observing the pattern on her blouse.

“Not very. Just sore. Tired.”

“All normal side effects of pregnancy.” She nodded encouragingly. I still frowned a little in fear upon hearing the word. “Liam, if I bring you some food, will you eat it? You haven’t eaten in a week and you cannot survive on injections. Your body needs sustenance and you’ll feel a lot stronger after you eat.”

I laid there nonresponsive for at least thirty seconds, staring into the florals of her shirt in a numb daze while the nausea softly poked and prodded at my stomach. The sickness was nowhere near as strong as it had been over the past few weeks and I knew it was because Theo was back in the same town as me.

The effect it had on my deteriorating physical state had been immediate, despite the fact that we were still apart. The chest pains had eased a little and the rope inside my gut wasn’t pulling quite so hard.

“I’ll try.” I mouthed hoarsely, my eyes stinging with the threat of tears as my mind entered the Theo-Cycle once more: _He’s here and he’s going to save me, but he’s going to leave as soon as he finds out._

The small hand on my arm gave a gentle squeeze and I was brought out of yet another daydream. My attention span was slipping faster and faster these days.

“I’ll bring something down shortly.” Edith nodded constructively. “But before you consume anything I’d like to look at your belly. Have you ever had an ultrasound for anything in the past?”

My eyes flew up to hers, uncertainty pooling in my gut. _An ultrasound?_

I shook my head no.

It’s painless and quite simple.” She reassured me with a nod. “All I need you to do is fill your bladder enough to elevate the uterus.”

My teeth clenched for a moment before I nodded nervously.

“Okay.”

She stood from her seat on my bed and moved down the laboratory to fetch a tall glass of water, calling over her shoulder as she went.

“In early pregnancy the womb is still relatively small, and so it still sits quite low inside the abdomen when you’re on your back. Filling the bladder helps to lift it up so the ultrasound can reach it. Judging by the size of you, it won’t be too much longer before a full bladder isn’t needed.”

_The size of me? Great._

I kept my mouth shut as I watched the womb in question from underneath my hospital shirt: rise, fall. Rise, fall. Rise, fall.

“Do you know when you may have conceived?” Edith was suddenly back at my side, helping me to sit up before handing over the glass of water. “You’re extremely fertile, so the first time you had unprotected sex would be the definite date.”

She reached for the cannula in my left hand, fingers gentle as she peeled off the medical tape and withdrew the needle from my vein. I looked down at my hand, now free from the experimental tube. That had to be a good sign.

I swallowed a mouthful of the cool liquid in my glass, the dryness of my throat thanking me for it. I felt my stomach stir and my heart ache as I remembered all the times Theo and I had made love.

“Mid October.” I provided softly, miserably.

Edith watched me with slight concern, looking down over my body before frowning.

“Are you certain? You seem to be a bit further along than four weeks, even for twins.”

I knew for certain it was mid October; it was the night we’d been to the movies. The night I’d realised I was in love with Theo. I could even remember the date on the ticket he bought me.

“October twenty-first.” I murmured over the rim of the glass.

The blonde nodded thoughtfully, leaving me to my water with a soft pat to my arm.

She disappeared across to the other end of the lab, returning behind a bulky white machine with wires and probes and strangely shaped buttons. I watched silently while she set it up beside me, the screen coming to life with a loud beep.

I felt slightly intimidated by it; I’d never seen anything like it before and it would be scanning _inside me._ Did all women have to get these? Did my own _mother?_

I tried to keep myself calm – she said it was painless. I finished the tall glass of water with a final, forced mouthful. It felt sickening and uncomfortable in my stomach, so I leaned back to stretch out a little more. The room was quiet except for the soft whir of the sonogram machine.

“The fluids should take roughly twenty minutes to move through you.” Edith explained when she was done with the start-up. “In the meantime I’ll go up and get your breakfast ready. Do you feel like anything in particular?”

I couldn’t help the nostalgic ache that flooded through me when I said the first thing that came to mind.

“A bowl of fruit.”

I was taken back to the morning when I woke up at home after being shot in the shoulder. I could still remember the perfect little squares in which Theo had sliced the fruit, the pleased smile in his hazel eyes while he watched me eat.

I closed my eyes and took slow, deep breaths. _Fuck. I miss him so much._

A hand brushed my hair back before Edith’s footsteps slowly faded away, disappearing up the staircase.

When I knew I was alone, I let the tears fall. I let the pain spread through my chest and claw at my heart, the breath rushing out of me as everything overwhelmed me once more.

I hated everything. I hated being so weak and helpless, I hated feeling sick, I hated being chained up and kept away from Theo. I hated the pain that was ruining me, and I hated crying. I hated the hormones, I hated the Burnetts, I hated being the only male in the world with a goddamn womb, and I hated the universe for letting this happen to me.

I brought a hand up to palm away the tears on my cheeks, sniffling through a blocked nose while my entire soul stung. I hung my head back, staring at the ceiling and slowly counting to ten while more water ran down my temples and into my hair.

_One, two, three, four, five-_

_“That’s it, keep going. Count to ten.”_

I nodded to the imaginary Theo inside my head.

_Six, seven, eight, nine, ten._

My lips felt swollen, and I realised that I’d been biting them. I watched the ceiling for another while longer before shutting my eyes and counting my breaths, concentrating on the soft whir from the machinery beside my bed. My heart calmed down and the ache slowly slid back into the darkness behind my ribcage, agreeing to lie dormant for another hour before attacking me again.

When Edith came back down the stairs, I counted her footsteps. It took her sixteen steps to get from the bottom stair to the table beside my bed, her ballet flats tapping gently against the tiles. I opened my eyes and looked up to spot her, next to my bed just watching me.

She reached down, her index finger picking up the water from my temple and brushing the corner of my lashes. She sent me a tender look, her expression almost understanding. I wanted to scowl up at her, because how could she _possibly_ understand what I was fucking going through? She was the one who was putting me through this.

She soon leaned away and turned to sanitise her hands at the benchtop below her overhead cupboard of medicines. I waited, feeling my bladder growing heavier as the water digested. It was an uncomfortable weight and it didn’t help that I was starting to feel cold. It was almost winter, and Montana got a _lot_ colder than California did.

“How’s your bladder?”

Edith’s voice startled me and I glanced up, unaware that I’d been daydreaming yet again. She moved forward and reached down to press between my hipbones, smiling softly at the way I squirmed underneath the pressure.

“Feels like there might be enough.” She met my eyes, turning to tap at the ultrasound machine a few times. “Are you ready?”

My heart quivered anxiously, but I nodded anyway.

She directed me to scoot down the bed to lie flat while she lifted my ugly hospital shirt and tucked paper towels down under the waist of my underwear. She shimmied them down a few inches, a soft blush rising in my cheeks when it revealed the soft dark hairs that gathered above my groin.

She didn’t seem fazed, however, merely letting her eyes roam over the rounded expanse of my skin. She was fascinated by it, I could tell. Her fingers ached to touch.

“Have you ever done this to a guy before?” I asked quietly out of curiosity.

She smiled and shook her head, turning towards her machine to reach for a long white tube and pop the cap.

“You’re the first.” She admitted softly. “As I knew you would be. I’ve waited to see a miracle like yours for a very long time.” 

_It doesn’t feel overly miraculous._

I watched while she squeezed at the tube, depositing a large blob of cold blue gel onto my lower stomach. I lurched, sucking in my breath at the chill as a shiver ran down my spine.

Edith pressed one more button on the machine beside me before selecting a wide transducer and stepping close to my bedside, pulling the machine with her. I stared at the contraption with uncertainty.

“Just let yourself relax,” She told me as she lowered the device to the gel on my skin. “This won’t hurt at all, I just need to press a little firmly to get a clear image.”

My breaths were shallow and nervous as she pressed the scanner down and spread the gel with it, my chest jolting at the sensation of something pressing into the swollenness of my belly. No one touched it – not even I would touch it. And now something was smoothing over it.

I gripped the bedsheets in my fingers and gasped, and Edith stilled her hand to look down from the screen. Her eyes were soft on mine.

“Breathe, Liam. I’m not going to hurt you.”

_You’re touching the babies._

I grit my teeth and forced my breaths to slow down. Edith felt much too close, her body and her machines crowding me as she invaded my space and touched me where I was afraid to be touched.

I forced myself to endure it, watching downwards while the pressure deepened upon my belly, my skin caving under the transducer while Edith moved it across the surface. She slid it from left to right before slowing, pushing just a tad deeper and unsettling my bladder before her hand stilled.

She tapped at the keyboard before her and I watched up on the screen as she placed strange markings in a square before turning the monitor towards me. It was an odd image, indiscernible white and black smears creating a mess on the screen.

“There are your twins.” She pronounced, indicating to the monitor.

I frowned at the image.  
“Where?”

She smiled and pointed to two black circles side by side.

“Those two rings are the amniotic sacs, where the babies develop. And those little ovals in the middle…” She indicated to the two peanut-shaped white smudges inside the circles. “Are your babies.”

I couldn’t blink, my eyes trained on the two tiny markings upon the screen.

My chest rose and fell quickly, the peanuts on the screen moving and shifting with my every breath. They were _real._ I was looking at them on a screen as they lived deep inside me, my body taking care of them and helping them to grow. There were _actually_ babies in my belly. _Two of them._

My heart made a strange flutter and I wasn’t sure if it was dread or warmth.

“They’re…” I breathed, my mouth hanging open. “That’s _them?_ ”

Edith nodded softly.  
“That’s them.”

She watched down at me while I stared, my brows worried and tender as the sensation flooded through me. It was a mixture of shock, disbelief and wonder.

_I’m having Theo’s babies._

I hadn’t known I was crying until the water dropped onto the pillow beneath me. The room was quiet for a long moment while I came to terms with the truth, all the emotions expanding inside me and bubbling over the longer I stared at the screen.

“It must be an incredible feeling.” Edith wondered aloud as she watched me. “To look upon the screen and see something that’s entirely yours. Something so precious.”

I finally glanced away from the babies to meet her eyes, finding nothing but envy and longing in the grey irises. I suddenly felt her pain; it was clear in her face how much this affected her, how badly she wanted to be _me._ She spent her working days inside a clinic, helping other women to fall pregnant and watching the growth of their children, torturing herself all the while with the images and emotions that she’d never get to experience.

I swallowed, my throat tight as I looked back to the ultrasound. This woman couldn’t bear children, but I, a male, could. It almost felt unfair, that the ability should fall onto me and not to someone who wanted it so badly. I found myself saying something I never thought I’d say to her in a million years.

“I’m sorry you can’t have children.”

She smiled down upon me gently, sadly, before looking back to the screen. She allowed herself one more moment to look upon the two foetuses before taking a deep breath and moving her finger over the touchpad.

“So, you’re having fraternal twins.” She explained, moving past the moment firmly. “Which means they won’t be identical because they aren’t sharing their genes from the same egg and sperm. Fraternal twins are separate babies. They develop from two separate eggs, and so will be just like regular siblings in appearance. With separate embryos, usually one is fertilised a day or so earlier than the other.”

She went to work at measuring the shapes on the screen before labelling one _A_ and the other _B._ She pointed.

“Baby A is the biggest, which means it’s the eldest. It was the first egg to be fertilised. Baby B is your youngest and by comparing their sizes, it only looks to be one day younger. So from your perspective, Baby A is on your right and Baby B on your left.”

I looked to the screen and then down to my belly, my eyes jumping from left to right as though I expected one side to be bigger than the other. The eldest was on my right and the youngest on my left.

“They’re definitely much bigger than four weeks.” Edith continued as she saved the image on the screen and moved the transducer to capture another angle. “They’re more like nine.”

My mouth fell open again.  
  
“ _Nine?”_

She nodded to confirm, the keyboard beeping as she tapped and took screenshots.

“I have a feeling it was the hormone injections.” She mused. “They must have accelerated the development while you were receiving them.”

I blinked, watching her work at the screen.  
  
“It’s not just a werewolf thing? That they grow faster?”

She shrugged unsurely.  
  
“I’ve had a few omegas in the past who grew their young rather quickly before they died. It _could_ be due to the measure of strength in your blood, but I’m not sure. The hormones are my best guess. Either way, these twins are big enough to be classed as nine weeks. That’s usually the milestone week for their development as they completely form from just an embryo into a recognisable foetus. Their hearts should almost be complete, we should be able to pick up the heartbeats in another week. They’re just over one inch in length and the size of a large grape. The sacs are equal to the size of a kumquat.”

My eyebrows shot up, my gaze shifting back to the screen. They were like grapes?

_So tiny._

Sooner than I anticipated, the transducer was removed from my stomach and the screen I was looking at turned black.

I blinked, coming back to myself as Edith wiped at my skin with the paper towels from my waist.

She looked up at me then, pausing and almost hesitating before opening her mouth – as though what she was about to say was something she _shouldn’t_.

“Would you like a copy of the ultrasound picture?” She asked softly.

My eyes widened the slightest bit, because I knew that Mark would never tolerate her allowing me to grow attached to ‘their’ babies. My heart somersaulted at the question. _Did I want one?_

I’d be able to look at the babies whenever I wanted, to just stare into the image and become lost in my thoughts. I’d get to imagine their development and think ahead to what they’d look like in the future. Compare them to more fruits and vegetables, perhaps.

But… they were still ruining my life. They were going to destroy me, because once the pack found me I’d lose my mate. He would run and it would be all their fault. Their existence was going to tear my life apart and I wanted to hate them for it.

The dreadful black shadow of emotion came back out from underneath my ribcage and spread over me once more, overwhelming me and making me want to tear my hair out. I grit my teeth and tried not to cry again, looking away and shaking my head.

“No.”

Edith was quiet, her heartbeat elevating in shock at my answer. She almost smelled upset.

“Are you sure, Liam?” She whispered sadly.

I stared off to the side, trying as hard as I could to prevent the tremble of my lip as despair filled me once more. I never answered her question, my fingers gripping into the bedsheets at my sides in restraint.

My silence served as her answer. She put her head down and shut off the ultrasound machine, unplugging it from the wall socket and wheeling it away without another word.

I shut my eyes tight, hating that the ultrasound image was the only thing I saw behind my eyelids. It was burned into my brain and I knew it was yet another thing I’d never be able to escape, just like Theo. It would stay with me forever.

Edith came back down to my end of the lab, undoing the cuffs on my wrists and trying to smile at me.

“You can go pee.”

I nodded gratefully and swung my legs over the edge of the bed, allowing a moment for my head to catch up with the loss of blood flow before standing to my feet. I felt the weight in my belly shift downwards, much more noticeable now that I knew exactly what was in there and how big it was. I shut myself inside the bathroom at the end of the lab and relieved my bladder, staring into the wall while the images just replayed over and over in my mind.

I couldn’t think about anything else, in a daze while I left the bathroom. Edith was waiting by the stairs when I came out.  

“Your fruit is on the bedside table.” She reminded me quietly, her voice carrying in a soft echo before she moved up the stairs and shut the door behind her.

She wasn’t going to put me back in the chains? _She trusts me._

I let all the breath out of my lungs and my muscles tensed as the conflict inside my mind surfaced once more.

_I love these babies, but I hate them. I hate them so much._

I let myself fall into a fit of rage as I fell back onto my bed. I tore at the sheets in my fists and ripped them apart. I kicked out at the railing on the end of the bed, a loud devastating scream leaving my chest.

I kicked and writhed, hands ripping the linens to shreds beneath me as I let the anger and fear out. The railing on the end of the bed snapped off under my heels and clattered to the floor with a deafening crash. My lip bled from the stab of my fangs and my throat went raw with my screams.

My yells and shouts soon changed. They turned from furious booms of frustration into helpless, wounded sobs. My voice echoed through the lab as I cried and howled, and the destruction my body was causing suddenly stopped. I fell limp in defeat as the emotional pain ripped me to pieces.

My life was in ruins. I was stuck in one huge, devastating whirlwind of disaster as my thoughts started poisoning me. I felt myself slipping, the angst and agony taking away the Liam Dunbar that I knew and forcing me to let go of him. 

I went empty and hollow, the tears burning down my cheeks as I let all the pain come out in muffled wails and cries into my pillow. My defences broke down and my strength diminished into the walls of the lab, embedding into the paint in the form of tears and cries and the constant sobbing of, “ _Fuck,”_ from my lungs.

My fruit was left untouched on the table beside the bed.

  
***

 

Theo’s POV

  
We finally arrived in Great Falls at 10 a.m. that morning, our entire trip north having taken a whole twenty-four hours thanks to all the damn fuel stops.

Lydia’s aunt’s house in Gibson Park was a lot bigger than I expected – I mean, I knew she was rich but not _royal_ rich. The estate was extravagant: professionally maintained gardens, perimeter security, garage spaces for eight vehicles, eight bedrooms, four bathrooms, a wine cellar, a lagoon and a goddamn badminton court. I assumed the property was worth at least ten million dollars.

I had been more than relieved when we pulled into the driveway, because being stuck in a car for that long was something I never wanted to experience again once this was over. Maybe with Liam I could do it, but definitely not anyone else. I was overtired and irritable, my Chimera anxious and restless inside me as he felt how close by Liam was in Great Falls. The moment we’d arrived, I’d felt it.

I was aching to get out there and start searching for my mate, but instead we spent the day settling in and going over information. Stupid, pointless information that got us no closer to actually _finding_ Liam. It drove me up the wall.

We’d all spent the evening at the twelve-seat mahogany fucking dining table, studying over the Burnetts’ legal profiles. Stiles had produced a large map – because somehow he always had one – and worked with the pack to pinpoint all the relevant locations to the couple in Great Falls.

By the end, we had three major places of interest: The Benefis Health System where Mark worked in the genetics department, the Women’s Health Clinic where Edith worked as a fertility specialist, and their home in north Great Falls on a street called Black Eagle Road. Google Maps even helped to pinpoint where all the entries and exits were from the street, aiding us in learning the area without actually being seen in public.

I spent all of the first night there laying awake on a sofa in the richest living room I’d ever seen. There were two extra bedrooms upstairs for me to have chosen from, but the dozen other heartbeats in the house overwhelmed me from through the walls. I needed to be alone, where I couldn’t hear a single person breathing.

I laid there all night staring at the gold-etched patterns in the ceiling, counting every minute that went by while my mind ran over several possible depictions of the moment I would find Liam. I knew I’d hold him so damn close, and I knew I would be close to speechless.

But something that frightened me was imagining the possible state in which I could _find_ him. My baby could be mutilated, covered in bruises and scars and connected to tubes and wires and having the life sucked out of him like the Dread Doctors had done to so many people before my eyes. Liam could be pale and thin, and on the brink of death. He could have been tortured so much that he’d turned completely savage and wouldn’t even recognise me.

The fears dug at my heart and it was difficult to shake them off, because as much as I refused to admit it, all of them were very possible. I didn’t know what this couple were doing to my mate, and from experience I knew that humans could be truly fucking relentless creatures. It scared me to the bone to think about.

I hadn’t realised my eyes had drifted shut until my mind took control of the imagining I’d been doing, showing me things and places I didn’t expect to see.

I saw flashes of grey eyes, lengths of blonde hair. I saw white cupboards and someone’s legs and feet upon a single bed, viewing from the person’s eyes like they were looking down upon their own body. The room was grey and dark with no windows, long, rectangular and equipped with high-tech machinery one usually found in a… _hospital_.

I stopped breathing, keeping my eyes shut as I realised what I might be seeing. I concentrated on the legs and feet I could see, focusing for just one moment before I was certain.

I was seeing _Liam._ I could see through his eyes.

_It must be the mating bond._

My heart pounded as all the possibilities of this connection rushed to the surface of my mind. Could I _control_  his body?

An attempt to make my beta raise his hand failed, and I concluded that I was just an audience. I couldn’t get him to move around so I could find a clue as to where he was being kept.

“Liam?” I tried whispering into the air, but nothing seemed to change.

Liam’s voice didn’t respond, nor did the pair of eyes shift from their stare upon his own feet. I only had what he could see, and while it was an entire room that I could commit to memory, it wasn’t much. It gave me no indication of his location, other than perhaps a dark private ward inside a hospital. One with no windows.

“Li, I miss you.” I tried to tell my baby. “I miss you so fucking much, but I’m coming. I’m going to find you, I swear.”

Again there was no indication that Li had heard me, but that was okay. I knew my mate had faith that the pack was coming for him, and I was sure that he could feel me. I was positive he knew I was close and that we were all here in Montana. I just hoped he could stay strong for a little while longer.

_I love you, Li._

My eyes suddenly snapped open, my vision being torn away from Liam’s and returning to the white and gold of Lydia’s aunt’s ceiling in the sitting room.

I panted as adrenaline coursed through me; I’d just seen through Liam’s _eyes._ I’d seen the room that the Burnetts were keeping him in, and that had to mean _something._

I sat up from the cushions, the time on my phone reading _05:42._

_That’s got to be late enough._

I stood from the sofa, padding through the freezing cold house and ascending to the second storey. I cracked open the door of the bedroom Stiles and Lydia were sharing. The two of them were spread out under the white sheets, starfished with a couple of overlapping limbs – just like Liam and I would be if he were here.

_Shit, don’t think about that. It hurts too much._

I tiptoed inside, moving to the edge of the bed and bending over.

“Lydia.” I whispered as softly as I could. “Lydia, wake up.”

The strawberry blonde’s long lashes fluttered before she drew a breath and opened her eyes. They widened at the sight of me so close to her bedside, but I held a finger to my lips to keep her from crying out.

She seemed to understand very quickly, opting to jolt into a sitting position instead of yelling at me.

The both of us glanced silently towards a still-slumbering Stiles, his mouth hanging open just a tad while he breathed.

“What is it?” She asked me under her breath, holding the bedsheets to her chest. “If you’re waking me up this early for something stupid, I’m going to _scream.”_

I winced and shook my head at the threat, because _no thank you._

“Lydia, I saw Liam.” I told her lowly, urgently. “I saw through his eyes, I could see where they were holding him and I’m certain it was through our bond. I need you to try to see it, find out if you can track him.”

Her eyes considered me with seriousness, searching over my face before she shook her head.

“I’m not sure I can connect to people like that.” She was uncertain. “I’ve never seen someone else’s thoughts or dreams, I’m not that kind of psychic. I can’t see into your head.”

My face hardened with determination.  
  
“You have to try. If you saw the room you might be able to figure out where it is, where _Liam_ is.”

Lydia sighed softly before glancing back towards Stiles, folding herself out from under the bedsheets and wrapping a thick dressing gown around herself for warmth.

She followed me downstairs to the sitting room, settling down on the sofa next to me and turning to face me with a leg underneath her.

“I’ll need a connection to you if I’m going to try tapping into your mind.” She shrugged, holding her palms out towards me.

My jaw ticked before I reluctantly reached forwards to lay my hands in hers, our fingers closing around the other’s palms.

The interaction made me feel uneasy and I wished with all I had that I could just yank away, but this was for Liam. If it could help us find him, I’d endure the human contact.

Lydia let out a breath and closed her eyes.  
  
“Just think of what you saw. Envision it in your mind and keep it there.”

I did as she asked, focusing as my mind rolled over the room and Liam’s lower body. I played what I saw over and over again, Lydia’s hands tightening around mine as she tried to establish a connection.

We were quiet for an entire minute.

“What did the room look like?”

“Dull. Low ceiling, medical equipment, lots of cupboards. There were no windows anywhere.”

Lydia shook her head, her lips grimacing.  
  
“I’m not getting anything.”

I glared at her face, her eyes still closed as she tried.

“Try _harder.”_

She shook her head, lashes lifting to look at me.

“I’m not getting anything from you, Theo. You’re like a brick wall – you need to open yourself up if I’m going to see-”

“I’m holding your fucking hands, how much _closer_ do you want me?” I hissed into the dim room.

Her eyes snapped up to mine with an idea, and I shook my head immediately because _no way._ The only person I got that close with was _Liam. No one else._

“I’m not kissing you.”

She scowled at me scathingly.  
  
“It’s not like I’m eager to kiss you, either, but maybe it’s the kind of connection we need.”

“ _No.”_

Lydia sighed and dropped my hands.  
  
“Then I can’t help you. You won’t open up enough to let someone in, so it’s not going to work.”

“You talk about it like it’s so _easy_ ,” I spat. “Not everyone in the world runs around with their fucking heart on their sleeve. Not everyone’s so naïve and vulnerable.”

“You think I’m naïve and vulnerable?” Her eyes lit up with anger. “Fine. I’d rather be comfortable enough with myself to be able to open up around the people I love, than to torture myself by spending my life as a conceited, closed-off _asshole.”_

I put my head in my hands, turning away from the banshee.

“There’s that word again,” I muttered to myself in indignation. “You know, if you’re all going to hate me, can’t you at least come up with something a little less _original?_ ”

“What about _fuck you.”_ Lydia glared, standing from the couch and moving to leave the sitting room in an angry blur of pink.

“Yeah, cool, thank you for all your _help.”_ I called out sarcastically. “You really helped in locating Liam, great job. A-plus.”

She whirled around, glowering at me from the bottom of the staircase.

“I tried _,_ Theo. I was _willing_ to try. It was _you_ who let him down.”

My heart hurt and my eyes flared furiously. _It was you who let him down._

“Because I wouldn’t _kiss you?_ Seriously?!”

“You refused to open up enough to _help!_ It’s Liam’s life we’re playing with here and you wouldn’t let your _stupid_ guard down for one harmless moment to try to help him. Anyone in this pack would do it without a second thought, but not you. I mean, do you even actually _love him?”_

I shook my head at her, enraged. Because she didn’t _understand._ She didn’t know what it was like to grow up in a world where love and happiness wasn’t an option. Where those kinds of things meant you were a failure, got you killed. Transitioning from a life like that to a normal one with rainbows and lollipops was not as fucking simple as everyone clearly thought it was.

“You have no fucking idea. It’s like spending your life trying to break down a ten foot wall of cement, only to find that there’s someone rebuilding it on the other side.”

The banshee stared at me in the dusk darkness, her eyes softening as she processed the seemingly random words from my mouth. Lydia was smart, I knew she could pick up on what I was talking about in a heartbeat.

She wrapped her arms around herself and slowly stepped back into the sitting room. She was placid as she stopped before me, watching me with sad, understanding eyes.

“You know you’re strong enough to break through that wall and leave it behind.” She whispered to the tormented expression on my face. “Everyone here knows it, and so do you. The pack wouldn’t have put their trust in you to be with Liam otherwise.”

I lowered my head, hating myself for the tears that started stinging behind my eyes. A soft palm pressed against my cheek and I flinched, looking up immediately to stare at Lydia in shock. Her thumb brushed against my cheekbone.

“It’s okay to let yourself _feel,_ Theo.” She told me gently, her eyes so honest. “You may be a battle-born wolf like the rest of these guys, but you’re still _human._ You still have feelings, whether you want to admit it or not. It’s okay to let yourself open up and feel vulnerable, because there are people to hold you up. It’s okay to _cry.”_

I grit my teeth to stop my lip from quivering because I knew she was right.

“I hate how much it hurts.” I breathed. “I just want to find him.”

The banshee nodded softly, her thumb brushing my cheekbone once more.

“And we will.” She promised confidently. “What three things cannot be long hidden?”

I watched her as the breath left my lungs, the tear finally slipping down my cheek as Liam’s old mantra played inside my head.

“The sun, the moon,” I swallowed and bit my lip. “And the truth.”

“The truth.” She repeated assertively. “The truth about where they’re keeping Liam will come out, and we’ll all be ready when it does. He’s strong enough to wait for us until then. You just need to believe it.”

She reached up, my eyes closing when she wiped the water from my skin. I let myself loosen, head lowering as I walked into her arms. She held me supportively, letting me in when I lowered my forehead to her shoulder and gripped the back of her nightgown. It was the most foreign feeling in the world, every nerve in my body screaming at me to stop, to pull away and run as far as I could. My lungs almost refused to accept the flowery scent of her hair and the comforting plush of her nightgown against my face.

But I brushed it all away, because she was right. It wasn’t going to kill me.

“We’ll find him, Theo.” Lydia encouraged me softly once more. “I promise.”

The hug broke off and a hand remained on my shoulder as Lydia squeezed it gently. She tipped her chin to the couch.

“Go get some sleep. Rest your head.”

I nodded, watching as she turned away to move for the staircase before ascending to the next storey.

“Lydia.”

She turned on the top step, hand on the railing as I caught her attention.

“Thank you. For trying.”

The banshee nodded with a gentle, generous smile and disappeared into the upstairs hallway, leaving me alone in the sitting room with my thoughts. My eyes were stinging with tiredness, swollen and begging me to sleep.

I moved back towards the large fancy sofa, rummaging through my backpack before drawing out one of Liam’s t-shirts I’d packed for the trip. I knew it was sappy and far too sentimental of me, but knew it would be one of my last resorts if I faced the possibility of turning into a zombie.

I pulled the woollen blanket over my body, settling down onto the pillows at the head of the sofa and rolling onto my side. My body thanked me for the warmth, and I hugged Liam’s shirt to my chest and brought it up to my nose.

My heart hurt when the scent filled my lungs, but I _let it_ hurt. Because it wasn’t going to kill me.

I worked through it and let the smell lull me off to sleep, my eyes slipping shut and my limbs softening gratefully into the sofa. For once since being separated from Liam, I didn’t dream.


	16. CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Theo’s POV

  
Thanksgiving was a day the weather reporters scrambled to rave about. Scott’s pack and I listened while the news anchors rambled on about how ‘warm’ the day had been, clearly having nothing better to tatter over.

My eyes were narrowed in irritation, my fork tossing at a leaf of spinach on my dinner plate while the reporters’ voices droned on and on from the television in Lydia’s aunt’s kitchen. Apparently today had been a record-breaking temperature for Great Falls, moving past 63 degrees from 1942 to a ‘shattering’ 68. Some shit about warm winds from California and Nevada.

The mention of California made me miss home. I missed my apartment with Liam, I missed our life there, I missed my truck and the warmer weather. I even missed going to _work._ I’d grown used to the comfortable, normal life my mate and I had made together and now it was hitting me just how beautifully peaceful we’d been.

The conversation at the dinner table was hushed and casual between the pack members while they dined together. Lydia’s aunt, uncle and two daughters had gone to some rich friend’s fancy Thanksgiving dinner ball, so the eight of us had been left on our own.

Derek, Corey and Malia had taken it upon themselves to organise dinner, making salad and frying up some chicken. They even found a bag of curly fries in the freezer. I would have helped were I in a better mood, ultimately deciding that the only person I would ever cook for was Liam. Everyone else could feed themselves.

So we sat and ate our chicken, curly fries and salad. It was no Thanksgiving turkey feast, but it was enough for us.

Everyone had gone on before dinner about things they were thankful for, Derek and I being the only ones who chose to remain vague and quiet in our responses. Derek merely said family, but I was thankful for next to nothing – and would be until I had Liam back in my arms. Then my one and only answer would be, _my mate._

It had been almost literally killing me that we’d been in Great Falls for two fucking days and no progress had been made in finding Liam. We would have started out in town today but everything was closed for the Thanksgiving holiday, barely anyone out working.

But despite the kink in our plans, I knew that just scouring the streets for Liam’s scent like Scott wanted to do was not going to be enough. Liam was in a room with no damn _windows_ , his scent couldn’t get out to the city. I knew this was his pack, and that he loved them like family, but they were going the wrong way about this. They were making the wrong decisions and wasting time while he laid trapped inside a hospital room like a test subject waiting to be experimented on.

I dropped my fork and sat back against my chair, my jaw setting while my anger spiked at the thoughts in my head. The loud clatter from my cutlery to the plate caused all eyes to fall on me, the pack watching my behaviour with confusion.

“Theo? What is it?”

_What is it...?_

I glared up at them all, my eyes almost spitting fire.

“I’m so fucking sick of doing nothing.” I told them lowly. “I don’t know how you can all sit here smiling and laughing while one of your _family members_ is out here somewhere terrified and alone.”

“You’re not the only one who’s scared for him, Theo.”  
“We _do_ care.”

“You have a shit way of showing it!” I growled, knowing the hypocrisy in my accusation was basically off the charts. “It feels like I’m the only one scared shitless about what’s going to happen to Liam if we leave him with these people for too much longer. I mean, how can you even _eat?!_ ”

The seven pairs of eyes watched me in a moment of silence while I seethed from the other end of the extravagant dining table.

“I know he’s your mate and that this is definitely affecting you a lot harder than it is us,” Stiles acknowledged carefully. “But we have nowhere to start. The scenting is our best bet to pick up a definite lead-”

“No it’s _not.”_ I hissed. “I told you about what I saw, Liam’s in a fucking room with _no windows._ Which means his scent can’t escape.”

“Well, how else do you suggest we locate this room? Considering all our ideas are shit and you wouldn’t let Lydia _help_ -”

“ _Fuck you.”_ I glared at Stiles. “I’m sorry if going around kissing people isn’t as easy for me as it is for _you._ Maybe one day you’ll actually understand if you decide to _settle_ on someone for once instead of playing spin the bottle with all your pack mates.”

“Can you say that again? The baseball bat in my Jeep wants to hear it.”

_“Guys!”_

Scott’s voice cut off our argument, the heat at the table almost at boiling point. The pack fell quiet, the frantic beats from Stiles’s chest and mine being the only things pounding into our ears along with our furious breaths. Scott stood and moved to my end of the table, standing beside me and lowering a firm hand to my shoulder.

“I know how this feels for you.” He told me softly. “But you’re letting the separation change you, Theo. It’s turning you volatile, relentless and angry. You have to anchor yourself.”

I shook my head, jaw clenched as I focused my eyes on the pattern of my dinner plate.

“You don’t know what it’s like.”

The hand squeezed my shoulder.  
  
“We can all see it. And we’re not here to fight you, we’re here to _help_ you. Take a deep breath, close your eyes.”

_Count to ten, like you told Liam._

_One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten._

My shoulders loosened and I fell back against the dining chair. I looked up to Stiles.

“Sorry.” I murmured, and he nodded solemnly.

“Me too, buddy.” He agreed. “What do you think we should do?”

I looked up to the alpha beside me, silently asking if it was okay to take the lead. He gave me a firm nod, brown eyes grounding and trusting from above.

I twined my hands together on the dinner table, leaning forward.

“I think we need to be searching the three places where we know the Burnetts spend all of their time.” I proposed. “The hospital, the Women’s Clinic and their house. Liam’s bound to be in one of them, I know it.”

“But we can’t just walk right into their workplaces, they’ll recognise us.” Malia argued. “These people watched Liam for months before they took him; they definitely know what we all look like.”

Stiles pointed a thumb to Derek.  
  
“They don’t know him.”

Derek’s eyes trained on Stiles, almost looking betrayed. _Throw me to the wolves,_ they basically said, the green blazing into the younger man’s. Stiles almost shrivelled under his gaze from the other side of the table.

“I’ve been on America’s _most wanted_ list for close to a decade.” He reminded Stiles. “If the Burnetts are aware of the supernatural world, they’re aware of _me._ Besides, even if they didn’t notice me, it’s not like I have free reign inside a hospital to roam wherever I please.”

Scott nodded beside me.  
  
“Derek’s right. It will be impossible to infiltrate their jobs and especially their _home._ We don’t have clearance to access the places we might need.”

“Exactly.” Mason agreed, defeated. “Just to be able to get in there you’d have to be…”

Everyone fell quiet immediately, eyes widening and turning to Corey.

“Invisible.”

The Chimera’s eyes flitted from one pack member to another, his expression falling in a dreadful  _well, shit._

“Corey’s our only shot.” I declared in the silence, watching him. “You could get in and out of all the places we need without anyone knowing you’re there. The Burnetts will never know we’ve found Liam until we attack them.”

“Please, babe.” Mason put a hand around his boyfriend’s arm. “For Liam.”

The Chimera looked down for a moment before letting out a breath and looking up with a nod.

“I’m our only chance.”

The table erupted into tender thank you’s and phrases of encouragement before we all leaned in, meaning business.

“So when do we start?”

“Tomorrow is Black Friday, so the Women’s Health Clinic isn’t open.” Lydia shrugged, eyes on her phone screen as she scrolled. “But Benefis is a _hospital_ , they can’t take holidays. We could wait out the front and see if Mark shows up for a shift.”

“No need, just call on a hidden number and ask when he’s available.” I corrected her, folding my arms over my chest. “If we can find out his hours, even better.”

“And we’ll ask about Edith’s, too.” Mason added in.

“But what about their _house?_ ” Corey asked with a concerned frown. “I’m not sure I could go in there with the both of them home. It would be too risky, the chances I’ll get caught would be doubled.”

Scott sighed, leaning onto the table beside me.  
  
“We’ll figure that one out after we know their work routines. If we’re lucky we can get that information from the receptionists.”

The pack finally fell quiet, all their questions temporarily answered. We looked between each other with breaths of finality.

“So we’re doing this?”

Seven nods.

“We’re doing this.”

So it was decided. We spent the rest of Thanksgiving night looking online for any indication of staff hours, but typically found none. Stiles hid his number and called the Benefis System where Mark worked, treading carefully around the inquiry of his working days to the receptionist through the phone.

“Yes, he’s an employee here. Are you interested in setting up a meeting with Dr. Burnett?” The woman asked politely.

“Yeah, uh,” Stiles winced at his own hesitation while the pack glared at him to think of something. “My wife needs a good geneticist. We’re trying to have a baby, you see, but our doctor told us we might not be compatible.”

“Of course, it happens all the time.”

The woman continued to tap away at her keyboard through the loudspeaker, reciting the days that Mark worked and would be available for appointment scheduling. It was almost too easy.

It turned out that he worked every second day of the week in fortnightly routines: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday for one week, and Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday for another week. This happened to be the fortnight where his work schedule began on the Monday, which meant that he was working a Black Friday shift tomorrow.

Stiles thanked the woman over the phone before claiming that he needed to check with his ‘wife’ on her availability before making an appointment, hanging up with a self-satisfied grin and lifting his hands in triumph.

“How good was that?!” He cried into the sitting room. “Totally believable, right? I’m a natural!”

“Yeah, the perfect con artist.” I muttered past the screen of my phone, a smirk lifting on my lips as the cocky smile left Stiles’s face. “Congratulations _buddy_.”

Malia laughed a little, at my feet on the other end of the sofa, and the rest of the pack smiled in quiet amusement while Stiles huffed and muttered to himself about,  _‘a little gratitude.’_

The next morning, all eight of us jumped into our cars and took a trip down to Great Falls south. We conveniently noticed that the Women’s Health Clinic was literally just around the corner and down the street from the Benefis Hospital, Edith and Mark’s workplaces being only two minutes apart. It was clear the couple was close-knit, unwilling to be too far apart at any cost.

The Benefis Hospital was a straight thirteen-minute drive from the Burnetts’ street according to the Maps app on Lydia’s phone. Seven of us settled into a large table out under the awning of a small café across the street, wishing Corey luck before he crossed to the hospital’s entrance and vanished into thin air.

We spent the entire day out the front of the café, slouching in our chairs and ordering an endless string of coffee to keep us alert while we waited. We received some particularly strange looks from the store owners due to our overly elongated stay, but they couldn’t exactly kick us out if we were still ordering.

We spent the time trying to relax, despite the niggling nerves in our bodies telling us we should be worried about Liam and Corey’s safety. My Chimera was definitely alert and pacing inside me as the minutes turned into hours, gentle whines leaving his chest as he grew impatient and restless for news about our beta.

The pack held gentle conversations around me as the day wore on, the streets across the highway in the city relatively busy with crowds considering half the shops were closed for the holiday. I spent the time adding into the conversation when I felt like it and scrolling through old texts between Liam and I.

It was strangely nostalgic, looking over the earliest of them and feeling the tension and hesitancy between us. We’d been short and stern with each other, both being bigger assholes than we really needed to be. We’d been so caught up in denial of how fond we were growing of each other, even while the Wild Hunt was upon the town. It almost made me smile to look at us now, if it weren’t for the fact that he was prisoner of a pair of anatomists and had been kept away from me for what felt like months.

I was _mated_ to him, basically married in wolf-terminology. That was more affectionate and committed to someone than I ever thought I could get. He was enough to be my soulmate, if I ever believed in that shit – which admitedly I was starting to.

I tapped out of the conversation on my phone, wanting to reach up and palm at my face.

_I’m turning into a sap._

After eight long almost insufferable hours, Mark Burnett was seen leaving the hospital. We slouched low in our chairs and lowered our heads, hoping the shadow from our hair would conceal the distinctive features of our faces. The geneticist didn’t glance up, however, his eyes trained on the phone in his hand as he strode down the street to the staff parking lot.

Shortly after he disappeared and the Mercedes was spotted driving north, Corey appeared outside the building.

A relieved breath left Mason’s lips as his boyfriend crossed the street, joining us with an exhausted huff as he dropped into Mason’s lap. The boy’s arms wrapped around Corey and he peppered the back of his Chimera’s neck with kisses. The majority of us looked away to avoid having to watch the public display of affection.

“That was the longest eight hours of my entire life.” Corey sighed, looking up when a waitress approached to ask him for his order. “A double-shot mocha, please. As large as you’re allowed to give me.”

She smiled and wrote down his request, moving off to fulfil it when no one else needed anything.

Malia’s brows rose at him.  
  
“A _mocha?_ Isn’t that a little sweet for you?”

“Please.” Mason grinned over his boyfriend’s shoulder, his arms looping a little tighter around his middle. “Corey loves _all things_ mocha.”

The pack groaned immediately at the innuendo and several of us hid our faces in our hands at the unwanted information.

“ _Dude,_ we don’t want to know.” I moaned in discomfort.

“Definitely not.” Stiles agreed.

Mason rolled his eyes good-naturedly, pressing several more kisses to Corey’s cheek before surrendering to our pleas and leaning back in his seat.

“So what did you find?” Scott asked Corey on a hopeful breath.

The Chimera shook his head.  
  
“Nothing. He literally spent the entire day in the Genetics Clinic. All he did was work for hours with other geneticists on testing and observing DNA samples while nurses brought them through.”

“So he didn’t move from that lab? He didn’t leave for anything?”

“Nothing.” Corey denied. “Liam’s not there, not in that hospital. If he was, Mark would have visited him at least once.”

I nodded at the truth in his words.  
  
“It’s true, there’s no way he would have gone all day without needing to check on Liam if he was in the building. There’s a kind of urgent paranoia about keeping someone hostage. You need to keep checking on them, to assure yourself that they haven’t found a way to escape.”

The pack nodded towards me, thankfully deciding not to scorn me on my personal knowledge of hostage situations. I was past those days and they knew it, appreciating the information I had as a valuable source.

“Exactly.” Corey agreed. “I even followed this guy into the _toilet._ Liam’s not at the hospital.”

Scott nodded while Stiles made a tick in the air with his finger.

“That crosses it off the list, then.” The FBI Intern declared. “Next is the Women’s Health Clinic.”

“But tomorrow’s the weekend.” Mason murmured in disappointment. “The clinic is closed on weekends.”

I felt impatience growing sharper inside my chest at the delay. Now that we’d started actively searching for Liam, I didn’t want to stop until we found him. I knew we were close and the desperation to rescue him was incredibly overwhelming.

Scott noticed the tension that built in my shoulders and reached across to close a hand around my trap, fingers kneading in. _It’s going to be okay._

“We’ll just have to wait until Monday.” He told us softly, his eyes on me while I clenched my teeth and tried to fight the negative cloud of emotion expanding inside me. “It’ll give us time to relax, let our minds loosen up for a little while. We’ve been too hard on ourselves, all of us.”

He was right, and that’s what the pack ended up doing – loosening up. But not me.

At first I was doing all right, going into the weekend with a mostly-positive mindset. I was able to keep my thoughts on the results we would get from Monday, but it didn’t last long. Soon the floodgates opened and I started obsessing over what I could be doing while we waited out the weekend.

The rest of the pack relaxed and set up camp in the cinema room – because of course this house had a fucking cinema room – and Malia and Lydia went out into the city to look around and go shopping. I remained isolated, not moving from the queen bed in my chosen spare bedroom for hours and hours. I knew I was losing my mind, but I didn’t care because I was so determined to try to connect with Liam, to try and find him.

I laid there staring at the ceiling, unblinking and trying my hardest to establish some form of connection with my mate through our bond. I’d done it before, I could do it again. Right?

Except I ended up staying there for days, laying there all weekend. I was mostly nonresponsive to anyone who tried to talk to me, doing my best to block out the dulcet tones of their voices in order to concentrate harder on connecting to Liam.

I was slowly going insane. I even thought I heard Liam’s voice a few times.

The pack stood by my door and watched in on me powerlessly while I stared and spoke through the room to myself, as though contacting some invisible being. I was fairly sure I needed a shower and should have gone to pee like thirty-six hours ago, but this was more important.

On Sunday evening, Lydia tried to rouse me.

I could see the pack standing in the hallway in my peripheral vision, watching as the banshee slowly crept in and sat down on the bed beside me.

“Theo?”

I tried to block her out, a frown falling over my brow at the effort. I blinked tiredly up at the ceiling.

_Liam?_

A soft hand laid over my arm.  
  
“Theo, it’s Lydia. Please, you need to come back to us. This isn’t working and we’re starting to worry about you.”

_Liam, please._

“Hun, maybe this isn’t the way yours and Liam’s bond works.”

_Li, I’m here._

Lydia looked back towards her friends, hesitating before reaching up to put her palm over my chest. The touch made me flinch, the wolf in my blood waking up. Because only one person ever touched me over my heart and he _wasn’t here._

A loud growl left my throat as my vision snapped towards Lydia, my features shifting as my Chimera surfaced furiously.

_No one touches us there._

I closed my hand around hers before she could jolt away and she gasped in shock, trying to yank backwards as she stood from the bed.

My wolf snarled at her, his talons digging into her palm.

“Theo, _no!”_  
“Stop him!”  
“Theo, please, it’s _Lydia!_ You have to stop!”

The cries registered in my mind, but I couldn’t make sense of them. They were just words enunciated one after the other and my brain refused to put their meaning together.

_No one touches us there._

_No one except Liam._

Lydia’s frightened cries filled my ears as she yanked out of my grasp and backed away. I shot up from the bed and stalked after her, my eyes glowing while the snaps and snarls left my throat viciously. I drew my arm back while someone rummaged around in the corner of the room beside me, my claws spread apart as I prepared to strike at Lydia.

“ _Stiles, hurry up!”_  She yelled as my arm rose, the man in the corner fumbling with something before throwing it.

The pack held Lydia in from behind her while my arm came down, claws aimed for her throat and a furious roar leaving my chest. She caught the object and quickly lifted it to my view, gasps leaving her mouth frantically.

“ _Theo, look!”_

I paused, eyes widening at the sight of Liam’s keys in her fingers, dangling from side to side before me.

The little plastic lacrosse stick swung at me, my eyes following it as the anger suddenly left my body. The fire in my eyes extinguished and the fangs and talons retracted, tears filling my eyes as Lydia anchored me with one of the only parts of Liam I still had left.

“It’s okay.” Scott’s voice called softly. “You’re going to be okay.”

Everyone in the doorway sighed in relief as the fight left me, my head lowering as I gently took my mate’s keys into my hand and held them to my chest. Several pairs of arms wrapped around me as I broke down, wheezing and panting as the shock of what I’d just been about to do suddenly sunk in.

“I’m sorry.” I cried, my voice muffled against someone’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”

Hands smoothed over my hair and back, whispers of encouragement and tranquillity being uttered into the air around me. The pack held me tight, supporting me as the strength seeped from my limbs and my legs gave out. Someone hoisted me up, someone tall with muscular arms and skin that smelled like vanilla and sandalwood.

Derek.

He laid me back down on the mattress and pulled up the beige throw rug from the end of the bed, settling it over me gently. Scott and Lydia were right there when he leaned away, their eyes both different shades of brown but equal in pureness as they whispered to me, calmed me down. Someone’s fingers brushed over my forehead while Liam’s t-shirt from my bag was laid over my chest.

I turned onto my side, facing the pack that knelt around my bed.

“I’m sorry, Lydia.” I sniffled, holding Liam’s belongings up to my throat. “I’m so sorry, I never meant to hurt you-”

“It’s _all right.”_ She soothed me softly. “You didn’t.”

“Just rest your head, Theo.” Scott nodded. “You need to let yourself sleep; you’re overwhelmed. Your body’s overworked.”

I nodded back, closing my eyes and focusing on the heartbeats that surrounded me. Lydia’s fingers continued in a slow rhythm upon my forehead and I let my body surrender to the exhaustion that I’d been fighting against for so long.

 

When I woke, she was still there next to me. She’d pulled up a chair and was upon Stiles’s lap as she thumbed languidly through her phone. He watched from over her shoulder, his arms bound around her stomach and tangled with one of hers. Their heartbeats were joined, in time with each other like mine and Liam’s used to do. I didn’t think humans could do that, but maybe I’d been wrong.

I let myself stretch under the blanket, finally alerting to them that I was awake. They looked up and soft, sheepish smiles spread onto their faces while they waited for an indication of my mood. I sat up, palming over my face as the sleep dripped off my body.

“Hey.” Lydia greeted faintly. “How are you feeling?”

I looked over both of them, gratitude expanding inside me for their care and persistence. I tried to kill one of them, but they stayed by my side anyway.

My jaw clenched as I remembered.  
  
“Guilty.”

The both of them shook their heads sympathetically.

“You don’t need to feel guilty, Theo.”

“The separation from Liam is taking a huge toll on you.” Stiles agreed. “Scott warned us it could happen and we learned to expect it. It’s not your fault.”

I shut my eyes.  
  
“But I tried to murder you. That kind of thing isn’t so easy to forget.”

“It is when we know you didn’t mean it.” Lydia argued adamantly. She reached out to lay a hand over my knee. “We’re your _friends,_ Theo. Your _pack.”_

I looked up to stare at the two of them as those words left her mouth, my Chimera even perking up at the meaning. _My pack._

“But I’ve done so many horrible things.” I tried to argue. “I’ve tried to kill every single one of you at least twice and now I’m a psychotic _nutcase._ You can’t want someone like that in your pack.”

“You’ve proven it to all of us that you’re not just an asshole with a pretty face. You’ve changed.”

Stiles’s words earned him a soft smack from the banshee on his lap, a soft smile lifting on one side of my face.

“What Stiles _means_ to say is that we forgive you.” Lydia reiterated pointedly. “The way you love Liam is so powerful and it’s obvious you would do anything for him.”

“Plus he’s literally given himself to you, mated you and all.” Stiles added matter-of-factly. “And we’re kinda like a package deal so if you get him, you get all of us, too.”

I exhaled a laugh through my nose.  
  
“Shame, no one told me.”

Lydia and Stiles smiled, and I reached down to wrap my hand around the one Lydia had over my knee.

“I won’t let you guys down, ever.” I told them honestly. “I promise.”

The two of them nodded confidently.

“Right back at you, wolf boy.” Stiles tapped on Lydia’s hips, making her shift off so he could stand up. “We saved you some of Aunt Frieda’s super expensive pork roast. Come and get it before Derek relinquishes his self-control – I had to fight him tooth and nail for that serving.”

I let the grin stretch across my face as the sarcastic young adult left the room, almost laughing after him with Lydia. She smiled.

“He’s right, you know.” She tilted her head emphatically. “Derek doesn’t hold off for long. You should get on that if you want to eat.”

I nodded, standing up from the bed and stretching my limbs. I gathered Liam’s keys and t-shirt into a neat pile over my pillow and grimaced when the ache of my bladder suddenly cried out.

“Might need to pee first. Guard the pork roast for me?”

I was granted a nod and a determined glare from the banshee beside me as we moved into the hallway.

“With my life.”

  
***

  
Monday morning came around a lot easier than Saturday and Sunday had.

I woke up from a long, dreamless sleep, my body feeling much lighter and my head much clearer as I stretched under the bedsheets. I could hear the pack downstairs, chatting casually over breakfast while the unmistakable smell of bacon and waffles drifted through the house.

I rolled out of bed and took a well-needed shower before joining them and starting the day with a mostly-positive attitude. We went with Corey to the Women’s Health Clinic after calling to find out that Edith worked fortnights that were identical to Mark's, only switched.

In discovering that, we came to realise that the couple worked each day in turns, making it so that one of them was always home when the other wasn’t. Which helped in our plans to try getting Corey into their house now that we knew what to expect – and also basically indicated with a neon sign that there was something in there worth _guarding._

This time when Corey went into the clinic, only a few of us went. We took one car, hoping to avoid appearing suspicious as we parked down the road from the surgery. All of us had a feeling he wouldn’t find anything in Edith’s workplace, but stayed put all the same while he went in and spent the day invisibly at her side.

He came out nine hours later to tell us that, indeed, Liam wasn’t there.

He had to be at their house. All signs pointed to it.

We went back to Gibson Park and spent the night preparing for the next day. Tomorrow was Tuesday and Edith had the day off while Mark went into work. We knew that the geneticist started at the hospital at 8 a.m. so we decided that Corey would be waiting outside their door at 7:30.

I slept again that night, using Liam’s t-shirt once more to help me doze off.

I got a full ten hours when Scott woke me at seven to get ready. The drive from Lydia’s aunt’s house to the Burnetts’ residence was only ten minutes. Black Eagle Road was depicted on Lydia’s satellite map as a barren wasteland used for farming, but we soon discovered that the map was outdated from 2011. Black Eagle Road was now one of the most expensive streets north of Great Falls, every single home we passed being an extravagant masterpiece of its own.

The sky was overcast and we were sure it might snow as we found the condo we were looking for, parking a good fifty yards down from the driveway to avoid being noticed when Mark left for work. The heater was on inside the car and all of us had thick hoodies on as the early morning temperature outside dropped to 60, winter rolling in upon the country. December started in two days.

Scott, Malia, Mason, Lydia and I wished Corey luck before he stepped out into the freezing world beyond the car. He disappeared into thin air as he made the walk up the street to wait at the Burnetts’ front door. We watched through the fogged car windows, counting down the minutes anxiously until 7:30 rolled around.

Finally, at 7:43, the front door swung open.

Mark stepped out in black slacks and a burgundy dress shirt, a Burberry coat wrapped around him for warmth in the low temperature. The door seemed to catch on something as he tried to close it, his eyes diverting to the floor as he shoved the door against the apparent object before dislodging it.

It was definitely Corey, holding the door long enough to slip inside, and it closed with a soft bang as Mark pushed against it. We watched him step onto the driveway and lower himself into the silver Mercedes, checking his hair in the rear-vision mirror before reversing out and leaving for work.

We didn’t think this should take even half as long as the hospitals did for Corey to search, but found that we were waiting for hours and hours.

We became anxious as the time dragged on, slowly becoming worried when he didn’t emerge after midday. We hoped with everything we had that Edith hadn’t caught him, or that he hadn’t been locked up somewhere by accident.

As the hours passed by, I sat in the backseat staring up at the house.

My Chimera was pacing frantically inside me as I felt it – Liam was in there.

Our bond was tingling inside me, begging me so desperately to get in there and find my mate. And I _wanted to_ , with all my heart, but I couldn’t be reckless. I had to shut my eyes to restrain myself.

_Wait for Corey._

Finally, the front door appeared to open and shut on its own.

Deep breaths of relief were exhaled from all four of us in the car, waiting for a minute until Corey appeared before getting in.

“Did you find him?” I asked immediately, heart frantic inside my chest. “ _Corey,_ was he there?”

The Chimera nodded anxiously, very clearly in shock.

“He’s there.”

The world fell from underneath me. _We found him._

I curled a hand around his wrist, mind racing as I struggled to contain the wolf inside me. He roared and fought against the confines of my ribcage, begging me to get out and _go._

“Where is he?” Scott asked urgently, his eyes just as wild as mine. “The police never found anything when Stiles’s Dad sent them, where are they keeping him?”

“There’s a door.” Corey tried to get out, the words coming to him too quickly. “In the kitchen, they have a walk-in pantry. There’s a concealed door and Edith _used_ it. I swear she went through maybe a dozen times.”

“Did you go in?” At least three of us asked at once.

He shook his head.  
  
“I didn’t want to risk getting caught or locked in there. But I could _smell him_ , I could hear his heartbeat and his breathing and that was enough for me to know. They _have him_ down there.”

They were keeping Liam underground.

_Go get him! Now!_

I moved to push my way out of the car, listening to the roars of my wolf as he screamed at me to storm inside that house. It took all four of my companions to restrain me inside the car, trying to keep my cries and yells from echoing into the street.

“We need to _get him!_ ” I pleaded while their hands held me down. “Guys, _please,_ we’ve found him and I need to _see him! Please!_ ”

“Theo, ground yourself.” Scott said sternly through the car. “You know being reckless isn’t going to work. We need a plan.”

I shut my eyes tight and my chest heaved at the effort to restrain myself, my breaths heavy in the quiet car.

“We need to plan this and put precautions in place for this fight.” The alpha continued, glancing over the equally desperate faces of his pack members around me. “We can’t just storm in there.”

“What if Corey and Theo went in?” Malia suggested hastily. “They could get in and out without being seen together and steal Liam away.”

I shook my head immediately.  
  
“ _No._ That would leave the Burnetts chasing us down again. They would be free to pursue us.”

Scott nodded.  
  
“Theo’s right. If we’re going to save Liam, we’re also going to make sure these people can’t do something like this again. We’re going to make sure they’re arrested and we can’t do that if the hostage we claim they’re holding isn’t even there.”

Mason, Malia and Lydia all nodded in submission, the air in the car awfully tense and stressed.

“They need to pay for the shit they’ve done.” I muttered furiously. “They’ve asked for this – they deserve to have a war on their doorstep and it’s going to fucking happen.”

The way the four people around me seethed and agreed firmly told me that I was right. We were going to fight, we were going to tear these people apart and break them down to nothing for what they’d done to Liam. They were going to get what they deserved.

 

We went back to Gibson Park and filled the pack in.

From then on, we started planning. We worked tirelessly, strategizing and revising the maps Corey had drawn of the Burnetts’ house while Scott and Lydia called people back home in Beacon Hills. They had way more people on the case than I originally thought, but told myself I shouldn’t be surprised that Scott had so many allies. He was a true leader, someone to follow proudly.

The help from home was on its way up to Montana by eleven o’clock that night, which meant that we had to wait for one whole day before they would reach us. The fierceness inside me was solid and ready to fight, nagging at me to just get out there and finish this on my own, but I had to remember that I wasn’t alone anymore. I had help now, a force to fight with and people to support. I had people who wouldn’t leave like all the others in the past. I had people I trusted, who trusted me right back. People with the same goals as me, who cared so deeply for the exact same person I did.

I had a _pack._

On Friday, December 1st, we would start a war. I would steal back my mate and take him home. I’d have him back in my arms and would never let him go again.

I stood out on the cold street alone before the pack went to bed, hugging my jacket to myself for warmth as the first few flakes of snow fell into my hair.

Winter was here.

It was a new season, a new chapter of the year, and it was the perfect time for a change. Liam was going to be saved, and the awful chapter of last season would become a tattered old page in the past, forgotten and left to wilt in our wake as we moved onwards.

The front door opened behind me and I listened as someone’s footsteps grew closer. Derek joined me on the street, hands buried in the pockets of his jacket as he watched the snow fall around us. It was peaceful for a long while, his heartbeat steady beside me before he spoke.

“My sister Cora was taken away from me a short while back.” He offered into the night air. “I thought she was dead, thought she died in the fire with the rest of my family, but she came home to find me. I hadn’t seen her in six years.”

I stayed quiet beside him, letting him open up in his own time. Our breaths puffed out in soft little clouds of smoke.

“She was held captive, locked away by Deucalion’s pack. They locked her with two of my own pack members in a bank vault, deprived them of the moonlight until they turned savage. I thought I was going to lose them.”

My heart ached in sympathy, because I understood what he felt.

“How long were they in there?”

Derek’s jaw ticked for a moment, green eyes flaring at the memory.

“Three months.” He responded softly. _Shit._ “Scott helped me to get them out. To fight with them was one thing. It was tough and we nearly didn’t make it through, but that wasn’t the hard part. What you don’t prepare yourself for is how you find the people you love when you finally get to them. They’d been starved and when the moonlight hit them after Scott and I broke into the vault, they lost control. They tried to kill us, couldn’t remember who we were.”

I heard the words he didn’t say. _It was heartbreaking._

“To see the people you love tortured into savagery isn’t _easy._ I wasn’t prepared for it, but I want to make sure _you_ are. I’m not saying Liam _will_ be that damaged – he’s a tough kid and he hasn’t been in captivity for three months – but you need to prepare yourself for the possibility.”

I nodded quietly, the fear in my heart worsening at the idea. But I had to believe what Derek said, what _everyone_ had been saying: Liam was _strong._ He wouldn’t break.

I took a deep breath and held my palm out, watching while snow landed upon my skin and melted.

“Are you ready to fight?” Derek asked after a moment or two.

“Yes.” I answered without hesitation. “I’m going to do whatever it takes to get him back. I just wish he knew we were here, that we’re _coming_ for him. So he doesn’t give up hope.”

I felt Derek’s smile beside me and looked up curiously. He smirked down at me, eyes alight under the almost-full moon.

“Then tell him.” He said simply. “One wolf to another.”

_I never thought of that._

I smiled back at the man beside me, turning back to the street and closing my eyes. I let my Chimera come to the surface, feeling the burn in my irises as they changed.

Together my wolf and I took a deep breath and _exhaled,_ letting out a long, deep echoing howl into the town of Great Falls. It rumbled the ground and shook the trees, my eyes burning bright as I roared out to my mate.

Even if the beta couldn’t respond, I knew he’d hear it.

It was my first battle cry, the cry that told Li that I was _coming._ I wanted it to give him strength and hope, because I knew that after all this time he would need it just as much as me. The condensation was a thick cloud from my mouth as the roar finally ended, and I stood listening with a hopeful smile as my own wolf’s growl echoed in the town for miles and miles.

It sounded just as I wanted it to. Strong, determined, protective and _powerful._

It was a new sound for me, something that I never dreamt of being able to achieve. It was no longer the roar of a cheap knock-off creation from the Dread Doctors, nor a lone wolf without a pack.

It was now the roar of a warrior at the head of his army.

  
***

  
Liam’s POV

  
I was awake in the darkness that night, lying in bed with damp hair after a long hot shower. Winter was officially here and I could feel it, even through the heating that came from the vents in the ceiling. It was at least 35 degrees outside from the feel of the chill that seeped through the walls around me.

It wasn’t like I had a calendar or a clock, but the earth felt different. Like change was here.

I knew tonight was the start of December.

I was on my back under the sheets, my fingers hesitantly smoothing over the thick blankets that covered my belly. I wouldn’t touch it skin to skin, not yet… but this was tolerable. This way there was something _between_ myself and the babies, and I clung to the idea as though the blankets were protecting me from becoming attached to them. Because I _couldn’t._ I  _wouldn't._

For the past five minutes I’d been hearing voices, listening as they came faintly from upstairs. They were both females, one I recognised as Edith. But the second… I didn’t know exactly, but it was strangely recognisable. It was so familiar, as though I knew I’d heard it somewhere before, but I just couldn’t place it. It was hard to make out the words in their conversation from through the door, next to impossible. All I had were their dulcet tones.

I’d long given up on trying to listen in, knowing it was a waste of time and strength. I was content just laying there and listening to the hum of their voices with a couple fingers swaying back and forth over the lump in my bedsheets. I was almost starting to drift off when suddenly another sound rang through.

This sound literally _shook_ the ground, booming through the house above me and echoing through the earth with such a power that it was impossible for me to miss it.

_Oh my god._

My eyes filled with tears as Theo’s roar filled my ears.

He sounded _beautiful_ , so fierce and so strong that a smile tilted up on my lips. The love filled my body from head to toe and I wiped at my cheeks as the roar ended, a definite promise that I knew meant one thing: _he was coming._

I didn’t know when, but my Chimera was _here_ and he was going to _fight._ He was going to save me.

I glanced down in shock as something inside my stomach literally _shifted_ at the sound of Theo’s wolf.

I watched over the blanketed surface of my belly and pressed a few fingers over it, waiting as the surprise coursed through my veins. I knew the babies weren’t big enough to start moving yet, but…

“Come on.”

And it happened one more time.

A flutter, a gentle roll against the crown of my belly as the babies reacted to the sound of their father’s roar. It brought more tears falling down as it happened, the absolute sweetest thing in the world.

They somehow knew it was Theo. They knew it was him, and they were shifting just enough to let me know that they could hear him and that they _wanted_ him.

“He’s coming.” I found myself sobbing down to them as the happiness overflowed. “He’s coming.”

I expected another flutter, but felt none. They’d said their piece.

I was distracted from them quickly, however, when yells suddenly cried out through the house above me. I jolted and waited, listening as Edith called out for Mark.

“Mark! _Did you hear that?!”_

“Everyone in Montana fucking heard it!” Came his furious response.

_Oh no._

The door to the lab swung open, smacking against the wall as Mark and Edith ran down the stairs. I backed up against the mattress, trying to brace and protect myself from them as they approached, but Mark’s hands found their way around my throat. They linked around me and squeezed, the bones clashing together in my oesophagus as he tried to crush my windpipe. 

“Mark, _stop!”_ Edith was crying out behind him, trying to yank his arms back. “You’re hurting him _, stop!_ You don’t need to do this!”

Mark growled in my face, eyes furious as he dominated me.

“I know that was the roar of a werewolf.” He snarled down at me as I failed to breathe. “And I know it was one of your little friends. They’ve come to try to save you, is that it?”

My hands closed around his, my fingers clawing as I tried to dislodge him from my throat. _I can’t breathe._

He shook me, my head jarring against the metal headrailing behind me.

“ _What do you know about this?!”_ He demanded, shrugging off Edith’s attempts to pull him away. “ _What do you know about their plans?!”_

I managed to open my mouth, pulling his hands away just enough to get a breath in.

“Nothing.” I rasped faintly, unable to get much more than a wheeze out. “I know _nothing.”_

The geneticist squeezed harder around my throat, the bones threatening to snap under the force.

“You will not roar back or it'll be the last thing you fucking do.” He told me furiously. “Do you understand me?”

I nodded frantically, eyes wide as the pressure built up in my head. I felt myself slipping, white spots clouding my vision before Edith finally convinced him to release me. I slumped back against the pillows, gasping and coughing as I sucked the oxygen into my lungs.

I panted for a long few moments, slowly regaining my sight as the air reached my brain through my blood.

The geneticist leant over me, his would-be beautiful face stern and grave before mine.

“We’re going to kill them.” He told me lowly. “We’re going to kill every last one of your friends before they can even set their eyes on you.”

I glared up at him, my chest rising and falling with half breathlessness and half fury. I knew enough now to say nothing, letting my eyes convey the hate as he stood straight and tugged Edith away with him. His wife’s eyes lingered over me as he pulled her away, wide and wary as though with concern.

“Theo will be dead before he reaches you.” Mark called as he ascended the stairs. “Such a shame he’ll never meet his unborn children.”

I seethed after him, confident that he was pure evil. I didn’t say a word as the door slammed shut behind them, listening as it was locked and barred.

 _No, he won’t,_ is what I screamed from the inside. _Theo is the strongest damn person I know and nothing could ever bring him down. Not even you._

 _Theo survives everything._  

I caught my breath, letting my nervous system settle down while I laid there and felt for a moment. I told myself I was just waiting to see if I felt any bruising starting to surface on my body, but what I was really doing was making sure the babies were all right. I felt no pain, no distressed rolls inside me. My instincts told me they were fine.

So I rolled onto my side, bringing my legs up and wrapping my arms around myself – around the babies – and let myself fall asleep to the memory of Theo’s roar in my ears. I drifted off with a soft smile on my lips, feeling more hope in that moment than I’d felt for almost a month. Because I heard him.

_He’s coming._


	17. CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Theo’s POV

  
To say I was impatient to get out there and fight those anatomist bastards for Liam was a dire understatement.

Waiting for Scott’s allies to arrive from Beacon Hills was like waiting for the damn grass to grow. I was more restless and impatient than I’d ever felt in my entire life – it was like each time I thought I couldn’t possibly feel any more desperate, it would somehow get worse and prove me wrong.

It was only twenty-four hours, only one day, but it felt like a lifetime. Thursday went by as slowly as possible and if it weren’t for Mason and Lydia staying by my side and deliberately keeping me busy, I would’ve gone insane. For _real_ this time.

It took forever. The help from down south didn’t arrive in Great Falls until ten o’clock Thursday night, three vehicles pulling up to add to the collection in Aunt Frieda’s garage. _Fucking finally_ , my Chimera screamed as the pack filtered into the garage to await the newest addition to our forces.

One of the cars I recognised as Chris Argent’s black SUV. The second was a silver Porsche, and the third was a black motorbike with a tall male figure manoeuvring it into the driveway.

Scott met them as they all rolled to a stop, the rest of us standing back as five men climbed out of Argent’s SUV. Argent himself, Dr. Deaton, Peter Hale, Parrish and Sheriff Stilinski.

Jackson and Ethan rose from the silver Porsche, and the guy from the motorbike was one I’d never seen before. I was told by Stiles and Lydia that his name was Isaac Lahey, an old friend of Scott’s and a former pack member. They said something about him leaving Beacon Hills with Derek after Allison Argent was killed.

My eyes widened a little in surprise at the large group of determined men who’d come to help us, their faces all tired from the long drive. The heat from their vehicles’ engines was welcome in the frosty chill that came from the open garage doors, warming us from where we stood.

Peter came to greet his daughter while the group of men approached us. Jackson punched Stiles’s shoulder and earned a whine of complaint before turning to me with an arm around his boyfriend’s waist.

He tipped his chin at me as he walked past.

“What’s good, Raeken?”

I shook my head as he slipped past me, not even bothering to answer his dumbfuck question. Nothing was good. Nothing at all. And he knew it.

Lydia gave Isaac a fond hug after he reunited with Scott and Stiles, the beta just as tall as Derek. He was bigger than I expected, broad and well-built with ocean blue eyes and a jawline almost – _almost –_ as chiselled as Jackson’s. Scott led him to where Mason, Corey, Malia and I were standing.

“Isaac, this is the rest of my pack.” He smiled, eyes flickering to mine for a moment with pride. “We’ve got Mason, Corey, Malia and Theo.”

The tall beta’s eyes locked on mine, the emotion behind them unreadable. He was harder to read than _Derek,_ and that was saying something.

“You’re Liam’s mate.” He guessed quietly at the obvious restlessness in my body language.

Despite the ache his words caused in my heart, I kept a straight face and nodded. Isaac nodded back almost apologetically before setting his jaw.

“We’re going to get him back.”

It was almost a promise. I could see why he and Scott got along; they were both just as determined as each other.

“That’s the plan.” Malia sighed awkwardly.

The silence didn’t prevail for long before voices could be heard ringing out through the garage while Sheriff Stilinski lectured his son on the short life expectancy of his Jeep.

“Dad, we got here just fine!” The son argued to his father nonchalantly. “She ran like a _dream.”_

Noah stared and lifted a brow in dubiousness at his son.

“Really.”

Stiles consequently shrugged and grimaced.  
“Took a couple of tries to get her started after every fuel stop – and the head gasket shit itself in the middle of Nevada, but _hey._ ” He lifted his hands in celebration. “We made it.”

The Sheriff shook his head and turned on his heel.

“If I have to tow you home when this is over, I’m grounding you, Stiles.”

The teen was seen following after his father in disbelief as he walked inside the house with Deaton, claiming that you can’t ground an adult university student.

Argent and Parrish were speaking with Lydia and Derek over by the SUV. I could hear something about weapons and safe storage, almost wanting to smile as I imagined the extravagant arsenal the two had undoubtedly brought along. Something told me we were going to need every clip of ammo we could get.

Even Deaton arrived with a large case in-hand, which either meant he had an idea for defensive measures, or that he expected to be sewing all our guts back up when this was over. Either one of those assumptions was equally possible.

Scott managed to herd the large group of people inside and into Aunt Frieda’s dining room after they all reunited and introduced each other. Most of the pack members took a seat around the large table while Derek, Isaac and I stood to the side, arms folded over our chests like the serious, antisocial wolves we were. After a brief scan through the room, I was surprised to count sixteen of us. There was no way we were all fitting into the beds upstairs together. Not unless some people tripled up.

I was definitely not sharing a bed with anyone – I’d opt for the super expensive sofa in the sitting room again if that were the case. I slept in my truck for six months; a sofa was like luxury.

“Firstly I just wanted to thank you guys so much for coming all the way up here for Liam.” Scott said gratefully from the head of the table. “You have no idea how much this means to me, or to Theo. You’re helping to make us stronger and helping to decrease the chances of anyone getting hurt. We don’t know what defences the Burnetts have in line or how many people they’ll have waiting for us come dawn, but with all of us together I’m confident that their numbers won’t matter. We can defeat them if we stay close and help each other.”

“Always so inspirational, Scott.” Peter smiled sardonically from the left. “I’ve missed your speeches.”

There was a kick to his shin from under the table and the omega flinched, raising his hands towards Malia.

“What? I have.”

His daughter glared and shook her head warningly while Scott moved onwards.

“We sent Corey into their house on Wednesday, and he’s drawn us a few maps of the floor plan as he remembers it. In the kitchen pantry he found a concealed door, which leads down into an underground bunker. The Burnetts are keeping Liam down there. These people are anatomists so our only guess is that they’ve taken him for experimentation. We don’t know exactly what kind of state we might find him in when the fight’s over, but I’m hoping to god he’s still sane and relatively unhurt.”

The twinge of dread and discomfort that twisted in my gut at his words made me feel sick. Relatively unhurt. It was a term that sounded harmless enough, but I could hear what Scott was trying not to say in using it: relatively unhurt as in maybe still breathing.

“We haven’t thought of a plan of attack yet, we thought we’d wait for the more seasoned soldiers to arrive before making suggestions and decisions. You guys know more about strategizing than any of us and we need your help.” Scott turned to Argent. “Chris?”

Argent nodded to Scott and braced his hands on the table, leaning forward and exchanging glances with Parrish, Deaton and Sheriff Stilinski.

“First we need to look at the situation we’re in – who these people are, what kind of weapons they’re likely to use against us, who they have helping them and where this is all going to take place.” He pointed to the maps Corey had drawn up. “We’re going to be fighting these people in their own home. They could have anyone on their team, looking at their expertise in tracking people and covering their own trail. You said they’re anatomists? They know how werewolf blood works. We need to expect that they’ll have access to lethal chemicals such as wolfsbane and mountain ash.

They will undoubtedly put preventative measures in place to ensure Liam’s rescue fails. They’ll take any chance they can get to weaken you.”

Argent sifted through the papers Corey had drawn on and spread them out on the table for all to see.

“Looking at this plan, and looking at the wealth these people have, this house is just short of a mansion.” He observed. “We need to try and estimate how many soldiers these people could fit inside that space.”

Everyone looked to Corey, as he was the only one who’d seen inside.

“To maintain enough space to fight comfortably?” Corey lifted an eyebrow. “Maybe thirty. To create a human barrier and slaughter us? Fifty. And that’s just on ground level.”

I bit my lip and crossed my arms tighter around my chest just to visualise it. There were only sixteen of us. _Fuck._

“It helps to expect the worst in situations like these.” Argent told the pack. “It mentally prepares you to face whatever they throw your way and eliminates the element of surprise. Which means you should also expect to find a traitor from Beacon Hills working with the Burnetts – the one who’s been feeding intel on Liam and helping them out legally. It could be someone close to you, someone you know. You need to be prepared to face that.”

It was something I’d thought on day in and day out, who the Burnetts could’ve been getting their information from. I wasn’t _from_ Beacon Hills, I didn’t know the people like the others did. I couldn’t come up with anyone besides Monroe who could possibly do something like this. Having Gerard as a mentor had undoubtedly taught her plenty.

The pack was quiet at the table before us, nodding and glancing to each other as they considered the fact that one of their friends from home could be the traitor. God forbid it was anyone in this room or I’d tear them apart.

“So.” Argent sighed, sitting straight and getting down to business. “Offensive operations need to identify the weak points in the enemy’s defence if they’re going to be successful. We need to choose manoeuvres that avoid the enemy’s strengths. They will be doing the same thing to us, picking out our weaknesses: our humanity, mountain ash, wolfsbane… any lethal means to eliminate us one by one.”

 _That’s one way to put it,_ I thought bitterly.

“Despite the fact that they will be trying to kill us, I respect that this pack has a code. Scott has never tolerated murder, and so Sheriff Stilinski, Deputy Parrish and I have carefully selected our weapons for this mission. We’ll be using non-lethal ammunition, mostly sedatives and nerve agents. We’ve brought protective gear to equip you with and Alan has been working on antidotes to inject into your bloodstream, which will minimise the effects of your known poisons if they’re used against you. With our defensive measures organised, we can plan our operation in accordance.”

Chris looked to Parrish across the table and the deputy nodded, leaning in.

“Anyone who knows military knows that successful defeat of the enemy comes from five factors: surprise, concentration, speed, flexibility and audacity.” Parrish explained to the pack. “If we’re going to cut down their forces, we need to surprise them and hit them where it hurts, where they’re weakest. On the battleground, the enemy’s flanks and rear are usually harder for the offensive to access, and therefore are less guarded than the front lines. Unexpected attacks slow down the enemy’s reaction. It leaves a window of opportunity to overcome them, but you have to be quick.”

Argent agreed.  
“We’re in the more advantageous position being the attackers; we call the shots. We decide the place, time, and the nature of the fight. Being the infiltrators gives us the upper hand. We have a clear view of the enemy while they have none of us. We need to survey the battlegrounds to focus our power on their weakness – which is where Corey comes in. Corey can link to other people, turn them all invisible, correct?”

The pack nodded.

“Before we move in, he and I will survey the house to get an idea of how many people the Burnetts have and _where_. That way we will know exactly what to expect and won’t be caught in a fight we can’t get ourselves out of.”

“Once we’re inside we will need to act quickly,” Parrish added when Argent was done. “Speed is vital in ensuring the enemy can’t use effective countermeasures. The average human mind reacts most accurately at a rate of 500 milliseconds, which is only point _five_ of a second. Being quick is important, but you can’t confuse it with hastiness. Hastiness gets you where you need to be earlier than expected, but it reduces your ability to perform at your full capacity.

Then there’s flexibility; it means that once you’re aware of your surroundings and you’ve memorised the building, you can take windows of opportunity using those surroundings to your advantage. Being flexible paves the way for audacity: you’re willing to be bold and act bravely to achieve optimal results.”

Argent picked up where Parrish left off.  
“Those bold actions are sanctioned by your knowledge. Of your pack, of the battlegrounds, and of your enemies. If you can accept the risk your choices involve, the more prepared you’re sure to be for success. So you have your five factors: surprise, concentration, speed, flexibility and audacity. We need to strategize based on your skills, strengths and weaknesses by putting you in the correct positions. For example: Scott is the alpha and is the pack’s strength, but he worries more over protecting _you_ guys than protecting himself.”

Deaton indicated to the right hand side of the table.

“Malia, Corey and Lydia are determined and wilful, but aren’t as strong or skilled in such violent combat as the others. But they are _smaller,_ lighter and much better built for stealth and evasion than the rest of us.”

Scott caught on, looking to his best friend beside him.

“Stiles and Mason have the brains, but they’re human. They can’t fight in this war like we can.”

“Excuse me?” Stiles made an offended noise. “I’ve put my ass on the line at least a hundred times for you and I’m still alive! I can _fight!_ ”

A snort of laughter sounded from the table and Stiles looked for the source.

“I _can!”_ He argued, turning to Derek beside me. “I’ve tried to fight you, haven’t I?”

The wolf smirked a little.  
“You lost.”

“That’s not the point.” Stiles glared, looking to me instead. “What about _Theo,_ I’ve thrown you down what, twice?”

I nodded, to give him some credit.  
“Broke my nose.”

He puffed up with satisfaction, turning to gloat at Scott.

“Broke mine, too.” Jackson glared across the table. “When we were trapped inside the school sophomore year. Remember?”

Stiles winced and scratched the back of his neck.

“Yeah, sorry about that buddy. You were kind of a jerk.”

“We get what you mean,” Scott cut the rambling off, addressing Argent once more. “We all have weaknesses and strengths. So where should we all be on this map?”

“We need to place you all where you can utilise your strengths while minimising room for your weaknesses to become a problem.” He mused, uncapping a pen and circling several locations on the map. “Malia and Lydia will approach from the rear. You’re the quietest out of everyone here and can fight your way from the back of the house.”

Parrish frowned in concern.  
“I don’t want them going in alone. We don’t know how many hostiles could be waiting, or how many could close in on them once they’ve made their presence clear. I’d like to go with them.”

Argent looked over the map once more before nodding and scribbling three names along the fenceline at the back.

“You’ll need to move through the neighbours’ yard. Don’t get caught.” He advised before moving to the next point on his map. “Scott and Theo, I want you two coming in on their rear right flank.”

Scott perked up with defiance just as my eyes widened in argument.

“We can’t just leave everyone else to take the full force of their army.” I refused while Scott frowned.

“We need to be on the front line, Chris.” Scott agreed with me.

“Your desperation to find Liam will end up getting you _hurt.”_ Argent denied us. “You need to infiltrate the kitchen, move through the back door and take down the hostiles that they’ll have guarding the pantry. The two of you are powerful enough to move from there through to the front of the house and aid the pack after clearing the way behind you.”

Scott slumped back in his seat and I shut my mouth with a scowl, knowing he was right.

“Alan will move in with you.” Argent indicated towards Deaton. “We will need him coming through as a medic and you two will lead the way. Mason and Stiles, you will stay with the vehicles. We will need you to direct backup and provide my ear with intel from the outside.”

 _Backup?_ I thought Argent _was_ the backup.

“Sheriff Stilinski can’t be compromised, so he will remain with you two and provide covering fire for the front line. He will be able to see what we won’t.”

“So Dad’s like the sniper.” Stiles grinned.

“What about me?” Corey asked with concern, eyes widening as he came to the conclusion that he was on the front line. “I can’t fight as well as you guys.”

“You’ll have certain objectives.” Argent reassured him. “Before the fight, I’ll need you to take me up to the house to scope out the enemies, and after that you will join with Lydia, Malia, Parrish, Scott, Theo and Deaton and make sure they leave the site unseen, so that they can successfully infiltrate from their rear positions.”

Corey nodded in relief before Argent addressed the remainder of the pack.

“Derek, Isaac, Peter, Jackson, Ethan and I will fight from the front, take the brunt of their forces while the others work from the back.” He concluded, scribbling their names into the street at the front of the residence on the map. “If this goes well, we should all survive it. We need to keep each other safe and work together, communicate. Deaton will be there to aid if we get too badly injured and hopefully we can get in, get Liam out and have these people arrested.”

The room fell quiet as everyone mulled over their new assignments, looking over the maps and memorising what they saw. I was on the same page as Scott in wanting to be on the front line with the rest of the pack. It was the two of us who were fighting the hardest to get Liam back, we needed to be the first two faces those bastards saw before we destroyed them.

But Argent was right; we were strong together, and we needed to cut our way through and make a dent in the Burnetts’ forces to take the pressure off the boys at the front. I sighed as the pack started murmuring amongst themselves and pointing to their own copies of the map, voices hushed as my mind ran a million miles an hour.

We were really doing this. We were getting up at the crack of dawn next morning, and we were running into battle to save Liam. I would finally see him again if all went as planned.

“You okay?” Derek asked softly from beside me, over the voices of the pack.

I lifted an eyebrow, not turning to look at him.

“Should I be?”

I felt the wolf’s smile and heard the laugh huff from his lips.

“No. We all could very possibly die tomorrow morning.”

“Ever the optimist.” Isaac commented under his breath on the other side of me. “If we just get in there and do this like Argent has planned, it’ll work.”

“I think we all need to get some rest.” Sheriff Stilinski’s voice called out through the dining room, much like the fatherly figure. “We’re going to be up at four-thirty in the morning, we’ll need our energy.”

People started standing from the dining table and I looked from them to Derek.

“Are they seriously going to try sharing beds?”

“No way.” Isaac laughed beside me. “Argent, Parrish, Jackson and Ethan booked hotels five minutes away. Can you imagine Argent sharing a bed with _anyone?_ ”

“Besides Scott’s Mom…”

“I _heard that._ ” Scott’s voice called out from amidst the crowd.

A few snorts of laughter sounded and the crowd made to disperse when a shapely figure appeared in the doorway to the dining room. Everyone halted and the room fell quiet while Aunt Frieda smiled at us, clad in only a white bathrobe.

“My, my.” She put a hand to her chest. “Christmas _must_ be coming, for the handsome men in my house just keep multiplying!”

No one made a sound, instead watching while Lydia covered her face and hid behind Parrish to avoid the embarrassment.

“I just came down to ask if any of y'all would like to join me for cocktails in the Jacuzzi upstairs.”

The room shifted with polite shakes of our heads and murmured  _no thank you’_ s. Except for Stiles, of course, who’d been restrained from putting his hand up to accept.

“ _What?”_ I heard him hiss. “I want cocktails in the damn Jacuzzi.”

Frieda gave one last smile before turning  to leave.

“Suit yourselves.” She sauntered back towards the kitchen, stopping to wink at Derek on the way. “I hope you find your missing wolf friend.”

Derek’s face remained stoic until she left the room, the pack bursting into low laughter once she was out of earshot. The room bustled with voices for a few moments more before people started filing out. Argent, Parrish, Jackson and Ethan left with promises to return at 5 a.m. while half of us showered and went to bed.

Scott moved into the darkness of the sitting room before lights out, most of the pack having gone upstairs. I was stretched out on the sofa, hands behind my head while I watched out the window at the city outside.

“Hey.” He greeted softly, sitting down on the arm of the sofa above my head.

“Hey.”

“How are you?”

I shrugged softly, swallowing while the anxiety still reigned inside my chest.

“All right.” I answered. “I’ll be better when we find Li.”

I saw the alpha nod in my peripheral vision.  
“We’re going to be fine, you know. We’re all going to get through this, and we’re going to find him. We’ll get him back.”

I nodded, looking down to my lap while his words sunk in.

“Thank you for all of this.” I murmured gratefully. “Liam’s so lucky to have such an incredible pack behind him. _I’m_ lucky to have such an incredible pack behind me. It’s just… no one I’ve ever known has done something like that for someone else.”

A hand fell to my shoulder and Scott squeezed it.

“It’s what family does, Theo.” He smiled. “And you’re part of this family now.”

My heart swelled when he said it, that I was one of them. That I had a family.

I looked up to meet his eyes and nodded softly.

“Thank you.”

Scott patted my shoulder and stood from the arm of the sofa, turning to head for the stairs.

“Get some rest. We’re gonna need it for tomorrow.”

“Night.” I called after him, my eyes drifting back to the garden outside the window.

In the end I couldn’t sleep. Not with all the commotion inside my body. I ended up laying there all night, thinking about Liam and watching the stars in the night sky as the moon slowly floated towards the horizon.

 

At 5 a.m. the pack gathered in the garage, as promised. Everyone was dressed, fed and fresh-faced, determined and ready to get out there and fight.

I felt sick to my stomach, my heart in my throat with the anxiety that had plagued me overnight. What if this went wrong? What if someone got killed today? What if Liam wasn’t okay when we found him? I couldn’t push the thoughts out, the negativity swirling around in my head like a tornado until I could barely breathe. I knew I was being paranoid, and that nerves before an operation like this were normal, but that knowledge didn’t keep the worries away.

The pack was supplied with bulletproof vests, everyone helping each other to strap them on while Derek and I refused. We were stubborn, we didn’t need vests to protect our hearts when our heads were the target. Scott almost tried to force us into them with a flash of his alpha’s eyes but Argent stopped him. It was our choice, and we’d made it.

Deaton approached us while the others strapped their vests on, preparing a syringe with clear fluid. He rolled my sleeve up and sanitised the crook of my arm with an alcohol wipe, flicking at a vein before holding me still and pressing the needle through.

I grit my teeth, looking away as the substance was pressed into my blood.

“What exactly is this?”

“This is called atropine.” The druid answered evenly, not blinking as he emptied the syringe into me. “It’s the antidote for wolfsbane and nerve agents alike, it reduces the effect of the poison in your blood.”

I watched while he prepared a second syringe, this time from a larger container. I thought I saw a horse on the label.

“And what is _that?”_

“They call this one DMG.” He sunk the needle into my vein once more. “It’s commonly used on racehorses and greyhounds as an endurance supplement. It increases stamina and performance.”

“You’re injecting me with an animal steroid?” I asked incredulously, earning a soft smile from the vet.

“Only the wolves.” He shrugged, moving on to Derek. “It will aid you with your fight.”

I blew out a breath and stepped away as the drugs circled through my body. I could feel them, my heartrate elevating at their presence, so I tried to keep calm by waiting on the hood of the SUV while the pack finished gearing up and being immunised by Deaton.

Soon, we were ready to leave.

We took two cars: Argent’s SUV and Mason’s Toyota, while Isaac took his bike. My hands wouldn’t stop fidgeting in my lap during the ten minute drive north, the city still dark around us in the early hour. The steroids Deaton had given me were making me shake, my fingers unable to settle while they twisted and squeezed each other in restless anxiety.

_We’re going to save Liam, right now._

We reached the Burnetts’ street quicker than I was prepared for, the vehicles pulling over an entire five doors down from our target. I stepped outside with Scott and Malia to get some fresh air while Argent and Corey disappeared and left to scope out the Burnetts’ house. We waited nervously, everyone obviously on edge and ready to get this over with. We could all die today and it was equally terrifying and exhilarating. But I had to remind myself that there were sixteen of us and that these people were _strong._ They were tough, and together we would survive this. We would get Liam out and the Burnetts would finally pay for what they’ve done.

“Keep a level head, Theo.” Scott told me softly in the freezing morning air. “We’re going to win this. Just think, Liam will be back in your arms within the next hour. Fifteen minutes if this goes as planned. He’s so close.”

I felt my heart squeezing with equal parts desperation and pain. I needed my mate, needed him so badly, and Scott was right – he was so close. One hour and this would all be over. I could last an hour.

The rest of the pack must have felt just as jumpy and claustrophobic as us, because they all got out to breathe on the sidewalk. They were fierce and ready, their faces determined and set with squared jaws and blazing eyes, but I could also tell they were scared. They were smart to be scared. It meant they knew what was at stake.

After a long fifteen minutes, Argent and Corey finally reappeared beside the SUV and the pack flocked to them on the sidewalk. My nerves were most definitely shot as I followed them, all of us crowding around to look while Argent scribbled on his map upon Sheriff Stilinski’s clipboard.

“What are we looking at? Is it bad?”

“They’re prepared.” Argent nodded, making asterisks in each individual room to indicate soldiers. “There is mountain ash forming a barrier across the front yard, we will need Corey to break it when the time comes. We could see at least twenty hostiles at the front of the house alone, all separated into groups of six in each room with around eleven in the front foyer. There are also several pairs in the front garden.”

“What about the back? Could you see?”

“Not so many.” Corey nodded in clear relief. “It should be possible for you guys to approach from the rear and work your way in.”

“They do have more forces upon the upper levels of the house, however.” Argent looked up and pointed down the street at the house in question. “In the windows on the second floor and on the roof. They have snipers. Noah, I need you to take out as many as you can when the fight starts. We can’t have them shooting these boys down before they’ve made it through the front door. They won’t last.”

Sheriff Stilinski squared his jaw and nodded, glancing around at all the youthful faces around him.

“I’ll do my best to protect you guys.” He promised to all of us. “As long as you do your best to stay strong.”

The pack nodded for him and Argent handed off the clipboard for us to study.

“Memorise that, look over it very carefully. We move out in five.”

The sickness riled in my gut at the confirmation. Five minutes and we would be walking down the street to start a war and save Liam. _I hope to god he’s all right._

_Please be all right, Li. We’re coming._

I looked down the street at the house and let out a cold, smoky breath. I could see the black dots of the soldiers’ uniforms upon the roof and around the front of the house. They looked trained enough, but not military standard. They looked like mere followers, people who were only doing what they’d been told to do and standing where they were told to stand. I hoped they’d prove to be inferior fighters to make this entire operation easier on us. It still didn’t mean that they wouldn’t shoot us full of bullets, but we could take a few.

Liam would take a whole clip for one of us.

I listened while Sheriff Stilinski made a call on his phone, speaking to the Great Falls Police Department. I could hear the authority in his voice as he demanded to speak to their leader, ignoring the argument on the other end claiming they told him not to call them again. He got through after a sharp threat to the person’s job stability, and detailed our position to the Chief of Police.

The conversation was short and stiff, and I only listened for a few seconds longer before the clipboard was transferred to Scott, Derek and I. My eyes roamed over it, Argent’s scribble marking the house plan all over. My brows lifted and I swallowed; there were at least thirty soldiers inside that house, more than twice our numbers. In regular circumstances it wouldn’t be a problem, but these people had guns. They would open fire on us before we could reach them.

_Stay positive, Theo._

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, willing the negative thoughts to kindly fuck off so I could get in there and save my mate without suffering an anxiety attack. _We can do this._

“Okay, guys.” Argent handed a sniper rifle to Sheriff Stilinski while he and Parrish equipped two pistols and a machine gun each. “Remember, work together and stay focused. You can do this. Let’s go.”

Someone’s hand closed over mine and I looked up to see Scott’s brown eyes looking back at me. He squeezed me and nodded firmly: _are you ready?_

I nodded back, setting my jaw. _Yes._

He let me go and we followed the pack as they walked down the street towards the Burnetts’ home, everyone with their shoulders squared and their backs straight as they built themselves up for the fight to come. My heart was frantic inside my chest and I felt my fingers trembling, but shoved them into my pockets and told myself it was because they were cold.

We all stopped in the road in front of the house, standing together powerfully as the hostiles aimed their firearms at us. We waited, watching the front door with bated breaths. Our arms pressed together in the tight group we’d formed and several of us held hands.

Finally, the front door opened.

Out stepped the married couple I’d spotted spying on Liam several months ago, clad in more protective gear than I thought was really necessary. It showed that they felt threatened. _Good._

Stepping out with them was a woman I expected to see, yet her presence still sent fury exploding through my veins and shock to freeze my lungs. Monroe stood beside Mark and Edith, the mess of her hair tamed back in a tight braid. I heard the pack’s heartbeats skip around me as the woman revealed herself, Scott’s hammering the hardest beside me.

“Come to rescue your precious little beta, Scott McCall?” Mark spat across the distance between us. “What makes you think you have a chance against us?”

“The fact that karma always comes back to bite people like you in the ass.” Stiles interjected before Scott could open his mouth. “This isn’t our first rodeo. If you’d done your research on us, you’d know that.”

Monroe’s eyes flared with disgust from beside the anatomists. Malia bristled.

“How did you get _her_ to work with you?” She asked what we were all thinking. “She wants Liam dead just as much as she wants _us_ dead, and now she’s helping you protect him?”

Edith folded her arms, a neat smile on her blonde little face.

“It was simple.” She explained politely, too politely. She made my blood boil. “We offered her something she wanted.”

We waited while she focused on Scott, grey eyes cruel in the cold morning air between us. I could feel everyone’s anger and determination around me, all of us ready to shut these people up and make them pay for what they’d done. I could even feel Liam. He was so close, literally just under the ground a few feet from where I stood. My Chimera was awake and snarling, ready to fight as hard as he had to to get down to his beta underground. He had my back.

“We promised her certain deliverance of the one person who can defeat her: Scott McCall.” Edith concluded. “And here he is.”

Scott nodded slowly, his fury only just contained. His fists bled at his sides as he clenched them to subdue his talons.

“Here I am.” He agreed. “And I’m going to stop you. All of you.”

Monroe merely glared while Edith laughed. Her husband smiled mockingly down on us.

“You can’t defeat us.” He sneered in distaste. I watched at the ground as the geneticist insulted our pack, waiting until an invisible object smeared through the mountain ash on the footpath before us. Corey had broken it for us. “You will never see Liam again, any of you. You’ll all be dead come midday and we will be free to continue our work on him.”

My wolf held still no longer, my eyes blazing at the geneticist’s words as a loud, defiant roar surged up and threatened him with a rumble of the earth beneath us. My claws were itching to sink into his throat and tear his tongue out.

“Scott.” I growled lowly, chest heaving as the pack around me shifted and prepared to fight.

My alpha nodded beside me, turning to the banshee on his left.

“Lydia.” He smiled softly.

We all braced ourselves as she stepped forward from the crowd to stand between Scott and I. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and let the anger from all of us sink into her. She filled up with our fury and let out a long, powerful scream. The force from her lungs crippled every soldier before us, reducing Mark, Edith and Monroe to kneeling forms as they tried to cover their ears from the blast. The scream bore against the house, and we took our opportunity as their army shrunk against it.

The chosen front-liners stormed forward with loud, furious roars to follow Lydia’s scream, charging the army head on before they could even think to recover from the effect. Gunshots started echoing immediately, but not from the enemy. Parrish and Argent opened fire against all the hostiles they could see, paralysing them and sedating them one by one while Derek, Peter, Isaac, Jackson and Ethan stormed after Monroe and the Burnetts and through the front door.

Sheriff Stilinski’s shots rang true, every single bullet hitting one of the snipers on the upper levels. My hand was taken and the rear infiltration teams joined with Corey to disappear from the scene, none of us being spotted as we ran together to round the block.

“Who’s right flanking?” Corey called as we approached the Burnetts’ neighbours’ yard.

“We are.” Scott announced, letting go of the pack to reveal himself, Deaton and me. “Good luck, guys. Fight hard.”

The disembodied voices of our invisible friends returned the encouragement before their running footsteps faded off. Deaton, Scott and I carefully tread into the yard beside the neighbours’ house, jumping a short gate before reaching the backyard where we could climb the fence.

We encountered an angry Rottweiler, chained to the back porch as he barked and snarled at us. We winced at the noise he was making before Scott’s eyes glowed red, and he shut the pup up with a single low growl. We climbed the fence to peer over, spotting several soldiers inside the kitchen from through the window. The backyard was clear, save for two men guarding the porch beside the pool over on the left side of the house. Lydia, Malia and Parrish would deal with them.

We carefully climbed over as smoothly as possible, dropping to the grass with soft thuds of our shoes. Deaton held our arms and kept us against the side of the house while he peered into the kitchen.

“I count six.” He warned lowly, looking between us. “You need to be careful. I’ll watch your backs while I can but I can’t promise anything.”

Scott and I nodded in understanding, preparing to break into the kitchen.

“You protect yourself.” I told the druid. “We’ll all do fine. Once we’ve taken these guys out, move on into the living room and aid the guys at the front.”

We all agreed before Malia, Lydia and Parrish were spotted climbing over the back fence beside the pool. They could be seen fighting and screaming their way inside from the back porch, Parrish taking the two soldiers out easily.

_We can do this._

We burst inside the back door and into the kitchen, instantly getting to work at engaging our enemies without being pumped full of bullets. Deaton was able to deflect several of them, successfully protecting himself from harm while he fought two of the hunters. Scott and I weren’t so lucky, several shots ringing out inside the kitchen and breaking glass while the hunters missed. A couple of bullets were well-aimed, however, and within the first minute of our fight Scott and I were bleeding from three different holes in our bodies.

I’d been correct in assuming these hunters weren’t military trained; they could barely keep up with our kicks and punches, trying to rely on their firearms for defence. We knocked them down hard enough to knock them out, taking a few seconds together to breathe before continuing into the living room from the kitchen. There were twice as many hunters in here, Derek and Peter being the only two having made it into the room to take them on.

Deaton and Scott aided them from behind, taking the opportunity to throw the hunters down while I paralysed as many as I could with quick scratches to their skin with my talons. The kanima venom I’d stolen from Tracy a year ago stiffened the enemies and sent them falling to the ground with wide eyes. My gaze met with one hunter from across the room, a dark-haired woman with features that seemed familiar. She seemed to recognise me, backing away and disappearing from view before I could figure out where I knew her from. 

Three more bullets sunk into my body – two into my shoulder and one into my thigh. I cried out at the burn of the injuries as they bled, my form weakening from the damage. My breath left me quicker than I could retrieve it and suddenly another object sunk into my thigh with airborne force.

It knocked me down and I growled out at the pain, gripping my leg and swearing at the sight of the steak knife inches deep in my flesh. _Fucking bastards._

The room slowly cleared of hunters as Derek, Scott and Peter took them down, Deaton doing what he could to kung-fu as many as possible. He ducked down to me once the other three moved into the next room, growls and shouts and gunfire being all that echoed through the house as the druid tended to my wounds. I worried about the pack, hoped to god that none of them were too badly hurt.

The sounds I was hearing concerned me and I couldn’t distinguish the voices and growls from each other. I couldn’t tell who was who, or if the cries were out of anger or pain.

“Your self-defence is awful.” Deaton muttered while he swiftly dug bullets from my skin and aided their healing with some rose-coloured elixir. “You’re supposed to prevent them from injuring you, not _let_ them.”

I huffed irritably at him as he pulled the steak knife from my thigh.

“I – _fuck!_ ” I gasped at the scrape. “I’ve beaten down twice as many as you guys. Self-defence isn’t my top priority.”

The druid stood and held a hand out to help me to my feet. The wounds in my body ached and complained as they bled, but I could feel my skin sewing itself up. I would be fine in the next five minutes.

“Well maybe it should be.” Deaton counselled as we moved into the colossal fight in the foyer. “Your body can only heal from so many holes!”

We were immediately engulfed in the fight, bullets zipping overhead as wolves and hunters fought, tooth and claw. It was difficult not to mortally wound these assholes when they were trying their hardest to murder us. They were keeping me from getting to my mate and for that, my Chimera wanted them dead. But we needed to stay sane. Non-lethal.

I scratched as many hunters as I could, Jackson doing the same on the other side of the brawl. Edith and Mark were nowhere to be seen, but one glance of the black mop of braided curls was all I needed before I was charging into the mass with a loud, ferocious growl.

Monroe turned just in time, stopping her assault on a badly injured Isaac to turn to my roar. My eyes were ablaze with fury as I held her against the wall by her throat, knocking her rifle to the floor as I lifted her off the ground. She grasped at my wrist, hands clawing at mine as she choked and sputtered before me. Her legs kicked fruitlessly while I glared up at her.

“You’re the fucking monster. Not us.” I hissed in her face as I let my talons pierce the skin of her throat. The venom sunk in and her eyes grew wider as the fight left her body. “You’re going away for this, and every supernatural in America will _thank me._ ”

I dropped the woman to the ground, letting her body slump against a pot plant as the kanima venom paralysed her completely. Parrish ducked over to us and bent quickly to cuff her while I protected his back from oncoming hunters with kicks and slashes at their stomachs. He then covered for Deaton while he treated Isaac, so I turned and continued to help the pack where they needed me.

They were doing amazing, all so fierce despite the injuries they sported. The number of hunters in the house was dwindling.

But just as I noticed it, a fresh batch of them stormed through the front door. It was absolute chaos; all of us were getting weaker and taking on too much damage. Jackson and I paralysed as many soldiers as possible, helping the pack as much as we could while they fought hard. It went on for much longer than any of us expected, a couple of us managing to corner several of the hunters in the next room.

Mark and Edith noticed Monroe’s defeat and panicked at the dwindling numbers of their force. So naturally, they did something stupid and impulsive.

Their hands knocked Scott and I down from behind before the barrels of their guns were held to the backs of our heads. Several pack members paused at the sight, their faces dropping while Scott and I held still.

Argent and Malia stopped fighting to try reasoning with the anatomists.

“Think about what you’re doing,” Argent warned firmly. “They’re just _kids.”_

“You can’t kill them!” Malia growled out after him.

Mark’s free hand closed around my hair and he tugged on it, craning my neck so I looked up into his eyes. Dark chocolate stared down at me, furious and triumphant and more evil than I expected. He was psychotic.

He smiled down at me slyly while I felt the presence of my beta from one floor below. My Chimera stood up at the faint sound of Liam’s heartbeat, forcing us to stay strong as we gathered enough fight to concentrate. I closed my eyes on Mark’s, waiting while the electricity sparked in my veins. _Come on._

The electromagnetokinesis awoke, my body sending at least five hundred volts into Mark via the hand he had in my hair. I fried him with all the energy I had left, waiting until he dropped to the floor before turning and standing tall enough to grip my hands in Edith’s hair. I knocked her weapon to the ground and slammed her against the dining room wall, holding my claws to her throat while she gasped and screamed for her unconscious husband.

My eyes glowed in her face with pure fury. This woman had taken my mate. She had terrified him and kept him away from me, tried to fight to keep us out.

“Give me one fucking reason why I shouldn’t tear you apart.” I hissed furiously in her face, her wide grey eyes roaming over my face in shock.

She was in tears, her body deflating in my hands as she gave up. She seemed defeated, smiling wistfully up at me.

“You can kill me if you wish.” She whispered hopelessly. “But Liam would not approve.”

I snarled and pressed her harder against the wall.

“Don’t you _dare_ talk like you know him!” I yelled against her. “You know nothing about him!”

She watched me tearfully, her eyes sparkling in what looked like wonder.

“I know more than you.”

My jaw set as I froze, my mind suddenly running over all the possible implications her words could hold.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

I hoped to god that she wasn’t being literal about it. I hoped she didn’t mean that I would find Liam’s body parts hanging about the room downstairs, his organs taken apart and studied to reveal what was inside him.

I felt sick.

“Go and see.” Was all Edith said, the words soft and warning me that she knew something I didn’t.

It made me flinch with worry, and I let her fall to her feet against the wall for Argent to cuff her up and restrain her to the leg of their extravagant dining table. At least thirty of Monroe’s followers stormed into the house, ambushing the pack with a fresh wave of assault. My body grew weak as the extent of my injuries finally took its toll, my mind slowing down with it as I worried sick about what I’d find downstairs when we reached Liam.

Scott’s hand took my arm as I stumbled, and the both of us staggered into the kitchen before the rest of the hunters reached us. The pack was slow and sloppy, all of us growing tired and weak. Scott and I fought who we could, our blood dripping onto the tiles and our strength leaving us before we could knock our enemies down inside the kitchen.

The hunters almost had us before more gunshots sounded, and two well-aimed bullets sedated our opponents before they reached us. Scott nodded to a bloodied-up Argent in gratitude before we climbed to our feet and helped each other towards the pantry.

All that was needed to reveal the door was to swing the shelving open. The door was barred and locked, and Scott halted immediately upon its revelation. He glanced down to the floor in alarm.

“Mountain ash.” He pointed to the thick black powdery line.

I glared down at it and dragged a shoe through it in disgust before lifting the thick metal bar off the door. _Did they really think that would keep us out?_

I stepped back and kicked powerfully at the door, breaking through the deadlock and sending it smacking open with all the energy I had left in me. Scott and I glanced to each other nervously at the dark staircase before us. We’d almost taken a step forward before a bullet whizzed by and embedded itself into the wall beside my head.

I ducked and turned to find a hunter taking cover behind the kitchen counter.

“Go.” I told Scott, turning to face our enemy. “Find our beta.”

The alpha sent me a look of hesitancy before doing as I said, nodding and disappearing down into the darkness beyond the door.

I turned and tried my best to reach the hunter without letting too many bullets sink into my flesh, staggering while pain burned through every vein in my body. There was too much poison inside me for the atropine to try to kill, and despite the fact that wolfsbane wouldn’t kill me, it still deteriorated me.

I tried so hard to shift, tried with all my might, but my Chimera was too wounded. _I_ was too wounded. Not even my talons would come out.

I couldn’t do anything except try to tackle the hunter to the ground, the both of us wrestling for dominance over the other until finally, the hunter prevailed. He knocked me to the tiles and held me down, pointing the barrel of his gun against my forehead with one quick, final movement.

I gasped and panicked underneath him, because this wasn’t how it was supposed to go. I was supposed to be there for Liam when we found him. I was meant to save him, and now I was going to die trying.

Liam would suffer the agony of our bond breaking upon my death, and he would be left alone and broken in the world without me.

I closed my eyes as the tears pooled, waiting for it all to end with one bullet. _I’m so sorry, Li._

But suddenly there was a crash from the front of the house. Tens of heavy footsteps marched inside and the hunter above me hesitated, glancing up towards the sound in surprise. _It’s not their men._

I took the opportunity to knock the gun from his hand and throw him aside as half a dozen police officers stormed the kitchen. They held down every hunter in sight, cuffing them and dragging them from the house. The Great Falls Police department came through.

I let out a deep breath of relief and stood shakily on unstable legs. I found two light switches outside the pantry and flicked them both on, illuminating the pantry itself and the room beyond the door.

I continued on as fast as I could without tripping down the staircase, my heart in my mouth. I was so desperate to see Liam that I felt sick. I could hear his heartbeat and I could smell him, he was so close.

The room was exactly how I saw it from through Liam’s eyes, and I searched it frantically before spotting the bed at the end of the laboratory. I could see two figures upon the mattress and I started running. _It’s him._

“Liam?! _Liam!”_

Scott lifted his head from my mate’s shoulder and their hug broke.

And I saw my beta.

God, he was so fucking beautiful, and he was alive. Right there. Those beautiful cheekbones. Big, scared blue eyes staring right back at me. Those full lips parted as Liam put his chained arms out towards me, and he started to sob.

“ _Theo!”_

My heart broke in two and I rushed forwards, pulling my mate into my chest and letting out an overwhelmed cry as I held him for the first time in weeks. The way it felt to hold my beautiful beta again made my Chimera whine inside me. _He’s here. I’ve got him. He’s here._

I hugged him tight, holding his head to my chest as his arms wrapped around my back. I kissed the side of his head over and over again, relieved breaths rushing out from my lungs in huffs and gasps. I could feel Liam’s fingers gripping my back, could feel his heartbeat shuddering inside his chest.

I couldn’t believe we’d found him, that I was actually holding him again. He was real under my fingers.

“ _You came._ ” Liam cried into my chest, nuzzling against me and gripping me as closely as possible.

The breath left me at his words.  
“Of course we came, baby. _Of course._ Are you okay, are you hurt? Did they do anything to you?”

He shook his head as I pulled back to hold his face in my hands, looking over his tired features. He wrapped his hands around my wrists and leaned into my touch, the tears being wiped from his cheeks by my thumbs.

I lowered my head to his and connected our foreheads, nuzzling close and brushing away the long locks of hair that fell in my way. His hair had grown out so much.

“Theo…”

“I’m so fucking proud of you, Li.” I whispered against his nose as I held him close. “You stayed so damn strong. So fucking proud of you.”

More tears fell from my baby’s lashes and in the back of my mind, I wondered exactly what the Burnetts had done to him. I’d never seen Liam cry like this before and now he wasn’t stopping. Something had broken him.

I touched my lips to his and he fell into our kiss, wrapping his arms around my neck as much as he could with the chains on his wrists. I could feel my body healing, could feel our mating bond repairing itself at an incredible rate as we touched and kissed and held each other close. Our wolves were nuzzling each other once more and it was the most wholesome feeling in the world. I felt home again.

“Theo.” Liam broke off our kiss to whisper against my lips.

“What is it?” I asked softly, leaning back to stare as his eyes suddenly started to worry. They were filled with fear, and I frowned protectively. “Liam?”

The beta tried to speak but the words wouldn’t come out. Only tears. I suddenly felt dread pooling in my gut at the sight, my heart panicking because _something’s wrong. Something’s really wrong._

I was about to ask again when Scott’s voice broke through the room beside us. 

“Theo.”

The alpha sounded confused.

I looked over to find Scott staring down at Liam’s body, his eyes worrying with shock. I quickly followed his gaze and leaned back to glance down.

_What?_

Liam’s lower stomach was bloated, risen and rounded over his hipbones from underneath the bedsheets. My eyes widened in shock and I pushed Li to lay back, pulling down the sheets and lifting the hospital gown to see his skin.

“Liam?” My eyes searched the surface, my heart pounding hard in my chest as I looked for an incision scar. “What is this? What have they done to you?”

Liam’s eyes were swimming heavily with tears and he started to gasp in panic.

_Baby, no…_

He shook his head over and over, Scott’s hand grasped tight in his. It broke my heart to see him in such agony.

“Theo…” He cried, shaking his head _no no no._

“Li, what did they do?”

The terrified sob left my mate’s throat, so frightened and scared.

“It wasn’t them!”

For a moment I frowned, because who else could it have been? But one more look down over the exposed roundness of his belly, and it suddenly clicked.

_Oh my god._

I shook my head in disbelief, mouth hanging open because _this isn’t possible. It isn’t._

But I could feel it now.

I could even smell it in Liam’s skin. He smelled different, and I could smell not him or me, but a _mixture._ And not just the way we smelled when our skin touched. This was different, an actual combination of our very bloods. It smelled like his coconut and my cinnamon, both of us mixed together to create something new.

It was strong, impossible to be there for any other reason. We hadn’t seen each other in weeks – this was the only explanation.

“Theo, _please.”_ Li was crying, the fingers of his free hand gripping into my shirt. “ _Please!”_

“How?” Was all I could whisper as I stared.

The sobs fell frantically from Liam’s lips as he looked up to Scott and back to me.

“It’s because Scott’s a true alpha.” He cried thickly. “I’m his bitten beta and the moon goddess gave me gifts and I didn’t know it was possible but it _is!”_

“Wait, _what?_ ” Scott frowned, his hand holding onto Liam’s. “It’s because of me?”

Liam nodded.  
“A true alpha’s male betas can… can…”

Scott shushed him, holding his head to his chest while the beta cried and looked desperately to me. He was hysterical, his fingers so tight and trembling in my shirt.

_He’s pregnant._

I was speechless and in complete shock as the truth washed over me.

Liam was crying because he was hormonal. He was sick and tired all those weeks ago because he’d been pregnant – it was never gastro. He was having a baby and it was _my_ doing. It was _mine. Ours._

And it made sense, why the Burnetts took him. _Him,_ out of all the betas in the world. They wanted him because he could bear children. They wanted to impregnate him, to use him for children or an army, or _something._ But he was already pregnant when they took him, and they’d kept him here all that time, which meant… they were planning on taking his baby. _Our_ baby.

The breath left me and I fell to my knees.

_Oh my god._

Tears welled up as I stared over the rounded skin of Liam’s womb from beside the bed. I shook my head in disbelief.

“Theo, _please!_ Please don’t leave! _Don’t leave!”_

Liam was crying, begging me over and over again. Scott’s holds and touches were doing nothing to calm his hysteria as he wailed and sobbed like a man who was about to lose absolutely everything.

He broke away from Scott’s hands to grip onto my shirt at my shoulders, shaking and tugging as I stared wordlessly.

“ _Please don’t leave me! I can’t- I can’t do this. I can’t live without you, please!”_

I looked up to him, mouth open and my brows incredulous as I exhaled all the breath I had in surprise.

“Leave?”

Liam’s expression froze, altering at the word as I met his eyes.

The tear ran down my cheek and I reached for his face. My beta hiccupped at me, the shock overriding his hysteria.

“What?” He whispered.

“Why would I _leave?”_

His hands held tight onto my wrists once more, his body shaking under my hands. He shook his head helplessly at me.

“I know what you think of yourself.” He breathed. “I saw what Tara did to you in Hell, I saw it. I know you won’t think you deserve to… to-“

I shook my head, surprise flooding through me at the knowledge that Liam had seen my nightmares. Our connection went both ways.

He was right; I didn’t think I deserved something like this, a family and a beautiful life. I was the least deserving person of happiness that I knew, but that didn’t mean I would _leave him_ and give up everything we had. I couldn’t leave him. The love I felt for him ran too deep, right into my bones. He was mine and I was his and I would do everything I could to keep it that way. Forever.

I held onto him while he shook and gave a determined shake of my head.

“That doesn’t mean I’m leaving.” I promised him softly. “No fucking way.”

Scott nodded beside him, his hand firm on Liam’s shoulder.

“No one’s leaving, Liam. We’re all going to be here for you.”

The sobs returned to my beta’s throat, but this time they were lighter, overwhelmed with relief. It lifted my shocked heart to see him so happy, ultimately making me cry, too. He’d turned me so fucking soft, this kid.

I looked down to his belly once more before shaking my head at him.

“There’s a baby in there.” I whispered in disbelief. “It’s real.”

Li watched me for a split second before his mouth opened faintly.

“Two.” He whispered. My eyes bugged out of my head. “There’s two, Theo.”

_Oh my fucking god._

Scott’s mouth hung open and he laughed in surprise.

“ _Woah!_ Liam! _”_

“There’s… there’s _two?”_ I was the hysterical one now. My head spun at the news and I had to put a hand on the bed to steady myself. “Oh my… I think I’m going to pass out. Jesus christ. Two?”

Liam nodded, a soft smile touching his wet cheeks as he reached up. He touched my face and pulled me in, crushing our lips together in a tear-soaked kiss.

It was everything I could have ever imagined, so perfect, and his lips were so sweet. Our emotions poured out into each other and I shifted closer to him on my knees, wrapping my arms around him and holding him so close.

We were having _twins._ Two tiny little lives that we’d made together, two incredible little miracles. After all the evil shit I’d done in my life, I was gifted with something like this. Something impossible, something so amazing. And Liam was giving it to me.

“I love you so much.” I whispered shakily against his lips, my fingers running through his hair from the nape of his neck. “So, so much. I’m not going anywhere.”

The elated tears fell from his lashes once more and he nodded against my forehead.

“I love you, too. Theo, _I love you.”_

“ _Theo!”_ Scott’s cry was sudden and a definite warning, the two of us jumping alert at the sound.

My stomach turned with dread. _Something’s wrong._

Liam looked past my shoulder before I could turn around, and the complete shock and fear that immediately filled his eyes terrified me to the bone. If something made him this scared, it was _bad._

And when I heard the telltale click of a gun’s safety being disengaged, my blood ran cold.

_No…_

I slowly turned my head, coming face to face with someone I never thought I’d see again.

It was Hayden.

And she had a gun pressed to the crown of Liam’s belly. To our babies inside him.

It all made sense – the dark-haired woman I'd seen upstairs. It was her sister. The help the Burnetts had legally with covering their tracks and tracking Liam and I down to our apartment was Hayden and her sister. She’d known Liam well and then she’d left town. She was the one who told the Burnetts everything. She was the traitor. She betrayed him.

The panic overrode me as I put the situation together in my mind, my first instinct being to reach out and shield Liam from her. The breath left my lungs in a devastated rasp and I made to shift up off my knees, my body jerking into motion as my Chimera roared at me to _keep them safe._ But a hand closed around my wrist and the gun was pressed harder against my mate, Scott’s warning coming out shallow and shocked.

“ _Theo, don’t.”_ He whispered as Liam’s hands closed around mine, stopping me from shifting any further.

My beta’s breaths were frantic and I could hear the tears in them as he shook under Hayden’s gun. He was traumatised as he stared into his ex-girlfriend’s face with betrayal and fear.

“Hayden…” He murmured through the shakiness. “ _Why?”_

The dark-haired girl scowled down at him, at all of us. Scott and I were forced to remain as still as possible, the gun pressed into Liam’s belly like a bomb on a tripwire. One wrong move and it would go off.

“I loved you so much, Liam.” She shook her head at him. “You were perfect. Valerie forced me to move out of town, but I thought you’d at least keep in contact. I thought you cared enough to speak to me. But you didn’t.”

Liam was a shaking mess of hormones and tears, his hands gripping hard onto mine while I was forced to remain still and grit my teeth in anger. This bitch was torturing him over the past, betraying him and holding him at fucking gunpoint. There was nothing I wouldn’t do to be able to tear her apart.

But it wasn’t my place. The fight was between her and Li. Not me or Scott. It was all we could do to keep still to protect him from having his guts blown out.

“You _left me_ , Hayden.” My beta’s voice breathed in angst. “You left town and you left _us,_ what did you expect me to do?”

“Not _this._ ” She hissed with disgust as she nudged his belly with the gun. Her eyes lifted to mine, pure hate burning inside them for me. “When I heard from my friends at school that you’d grown close to this _murderer…_ I thought it was a lie. There was no way the Liam I knew could ever become friends with someone like Theo. But then I heard that you were _together_ and I felt so sick. So disgusted. You let him manipulate you into his bed, and now you’re _knocked up.”_

The low growl left my throat, unable to be contained as the fury burned inside me.

“I _never_ manipulated him!”

“ _Theo, stop!”_

Hayden nodded to Liam’s warning, glancing down to the gun she held before reaching into her pocket to produce a large bullet. It was silver tipped, the body transparent and filled with an amber yellow liquid I knew only too well as the Burnetts’ favourite wolfsbane. I’d had at least a dozen of them stuck in my body not half an hour ago.

“I’d listen to your boyfriend if I were you.” She warned me lowly, twirling the shell in her fingers. “One of these inside _there?_ You’d lose both him _and_ those abominations within seconds. Don’t make me shoot.”

My chest rose and fell furiously as every nerve inside my body begged me to tear her limb from limb, to dismember her so brutally that forensic identification would be impossible when I was finished. She was threatening my mate and our babies and I was positive that there was no possible way to make a wolf angrier or more protective. I was at my limit.

The only thing holding me back was the touch of Liam’s skin against mine, our arms flush together as our hands twined tight. He was the only thing grounding me, keeping me anchored firmly on my knees beside the bed.

“Hayden, you don’t have to do this.” Scott tried reasoning with her, his face pale and his eyes creased with worry beside Liam. “This isn’t you. This isn’t the girl we saved from the Dread Doctors.”

All four of our heads turned as the bloodied remainder of our pack suddenly came in through the door atop the staircase from the pantry. Everyone was accounted for, but went deathly still and wide-eyed as they took in the scene before them. They froze and stared, all of their eyes roaming frantically over us.

“Oh my god.” I heard Mason’s voice break.

“Liam!”

“Nobody move.” Argent warned quietly, gravely.

Hayden turned back to us with a satisfied smile.

“At least your friends are smart.” She tilted her head, looking to Scott. “And _yes,_ Scott. I do have to do this. If Liam can fall in love with someone so awful – a mass murderer – then he doesn’t deserve to live. And neither does _Theo._ ”

Liam’s breaths grew shorter, his fingers almost breaking mine as he squeezed for support. I squeezed back, trying my absolute hardest to keep still.

_If you move, they die._

“You don’t know what you’re saying!” Liam shook his head at Hayden. “You’re…”

The female Chimera lifted her brows confrontationally.

“Insane? _Psychotic?_ Isn’t that what you called Mark and Edith when you first woke up in here?”

“Well, he was right on the fucking money.” I glared at her, earning a painful squeeze of my hands from Liam and a _shh_ from Scott. “You’re _jealous,_ Hayden. You’re doing this because you’re jealous that Liam fell for me.”

“Theo, keep your mouth shut!” Scott warned urgently while Liam shook his head frantically.

“You won’t kill him.” I continued, seething up at her as my eyes started to glow. “Because you’re still in love with him.”

The girl’s expression slipped for a split second, just long enough for me to see before she set her jaw and closed a second hand around the base of the gun.

“ _Watch me.”_ She hissed, her finger squeezing around the trigger while all three of us cried out in devastation.

“ _NO!”_

_Bang._

The shot never hit its target.

Hayden’s entire body disappeared into thin air as she pulled the trigger on Liam, the bullet embedding itself into the ceiling instead of his belly. We jumped up in fright as disembodied growls and scuffs sounded on the floor at the end of the bed, the entire pack running down the stairs to rush up before Corey and Hayden re-emerged from invisibility.

The breath left our lungs in surprise at the sight, Hayden on her stomach with her hands bound behind her back underneath Corey’s weight as he wrestled with her, blood gushing from his nose.

Argent and Parrish immediately snapped into action, ducking down to aid him in holding her down before cuffing her and letting Deaton push just enough sedative through to calm her. Scott and I looked to Liam in shock, his mouth open and blue eyes just as wide as ours.

He glanced between us for a short moment before slumping in relief, wrapping his arms around us as we held him close.

_He almost just died. And Corey saved him._

I looked down the bed to where Mason had Corey wrapped in a tight hug, the Chimera’s eyes on us as he smiled over Liam.

“You could’ve fucking died.” I told him as he and the pack crowded around Liam’s bed. “ _Thank you.”_

Corey nodded loyally, reaching out past Scott to fold Liam into a hug.

“He’s family.”

The tears of joy and gratitude shone in Liam’s eyes as his pack reached in and embraced him, a thousand _thank you’s_ spilling from his lips. Scott and I stood up, smiling at each other over the huddle on top of Liam as we backed away to let them reunite with him.

We approached the five cuffed prisoners on their knees at Parrish and Argent’s feet, hate boiling through my veins at the sight of them. Hayden, Valerie, Monroe, Edith and Mark. 

“Where are they keys to his chains?” Scott demanded of Mark and Edith, their bodies slumped in defeat on the floor. “ _Where are they?”_

Edith motioned her head towards the staircase.  
“In the fruit bowl in the kitchen. Bronze set.”

Scott and I exchanged glances before he ran off to retrieve the keys, leaving me alone with the monsters who’d stolen and traumatised my mate. And I was going to start with the worst.

I fisted Mark Burnett’s hair in my fingers and yanked his head up, pressing my talons into the underside of his jaw. Edith gasped while her husband groaned at me, his body still weak from being electrocuted.

“How do you feel about a slow death?” I hissed in his face, my Chimera’s golden eyes glowing in the reflection of Mark’s. “I’ll start at the top and work my way down. I think I’ll rip your bottom jaw off first.”

 _“Please don’t!”_ Edith cried from beside her husband.

Mark’s breaths were frantic with fear, alarm in his eyes as he panted.

“You won’t get away with this.” I vowed. “You chained him up, frightened him to within an inch of his life. You connected him to machines and tubes and conspired to _use him_ , to breed him like some common fucking _mare._ All because you couldn’t have your own children.”

Edith’s sobs were like music to my ears, her husband’s eyes shining with the truth of my words.

“And you know what? _Good.”_ I snarled in their faces. “ _Good_ you’re sterile. Pathetic, monstrous, _psychotic_ people like you don’t _deserve_ to become parents.”

Mark let himself have one last moment of spite, glaring up at me hatefully.

“Neither do you.”

It hit home, the burn in my heart reminding me that he was right. I didn’t deserve those babies.

But I would try as hard as I _could_ to deserve them.

I knew the difference between these people and myself: I was going to try. I was going to do what I could to be a better person for them, to be a role model for them to look up to instead of raising them with lies, deceit and malice like these two would. They would be just like Liam. They’d be kind and happy, and so damn beautiful.

I growled down at Mark as the hate solidified in my veins.

“At least I never pretended otherwise.”

I dug my talons a little deeper into his skin, my hand fisting his hair harder and pulling until he cried out.

“You can’t do this!” He barked as I towered over him.

I let myself smile, relishing in the power I felt in having these bastards at my mercy. The murderous glint was back in my eye after I’d hidden it away for so long, and I’d been saving it for a moment like this.

These people had kidnapped my mate, chained him to a bed and plotted to put children into him. They broke him and traumatised him, and all while he was pregnant with my twins. That was unforgivable. That meant _death._

“But I can.” I answered his claim with a deadly smirk, watching the horror transpire in his features. “Because when we first met, you invited me to try. Remember?”

I watched it dawn on him that his words were now coming back to haunt him.

_“I’m going to fucking kill you! I’m going to tear you both limb from fucking limb, and I promise there will be nothing left when I’m done with you!”_

_“I invite you to try, Theo Raeken.”_

It brought me pure joy to see these people shitting themselves with fear.

“I made a promise.” I reminded them as I dug my talons into Mark’s throat, just enough to draw blood. “And I fully intend to keep it.”

_“Theo.”_

The way Liam’s voice softened my muscles was entirely involuntary. My shoulders fell and my eyes slipped shut without my permission, a hand closing over my wrist and tugging until I turned around.

I looked into the tiredness of his blue eyes as his hands found my face, his head shaking ever so slightly while his fingers caressed my cheeks.

“Don’t.” He whispered over my lips, my arms wrapping around him and pulling him closer. “It’s not you. Not anymore.”

I put my forehead to his and let out a deep breath.

“They can’t get away with this.” I argued softly. “They chained you up, put you through hell. I promised them I would rip them apart and that’s what I’m going to do.”

The fingers on my cheeks stroked back and forth, calming my heartrate despite the words I’d just spoken. Liam brought me back, settled me down with touches and nuzzles of his nose against the side of mine.

“Make a new promise – to me.” He urged me instead. He looked down to the gentle bulge of his belly between us. “To them.”

I looked into his eyes, my Chimera surrendering to him and laying at his feet. I was his. 

“Anything.”

He leaned up to brush a kiss over my lips.  
“Promise us you won’t kill. Ever again.”

All the breath left me and I encircled his waist in my arms, pulling him against me and burying my face into the crook of his neck. I nodded against his skin as I inhaled him, feeling the anger leave my body as he healed me. He was right: this wasn’t me. Not anymore.

These people didn’t deserve to die.

They deserved to live – in a dark cell for the rest of their time. They deserved to keep breathing, to be helpless against the agony and guilt that tore at them year after year while they paid for what they’d done to Liam and so many others. As much as ripping them to shreds was what my instincts wanted as Liam’s protector, I knew that killing them would end their suffering. And they deserved to suffer.

“I promise.” I whispered against the mating bite on Liam’s throat, holding him tight and letting myself relish in the waves of relief that washed over me. I had him, he was here. He was safe and back in my arms where he belonged. “I promise.”

More footsteps clambered down the staircase to our right and we lifted our heads to look, watching while the Chief of the Great Falls Police Department approached with Sheriff Stilinski.

“This is them?” The man asked, stopping before the five prisoners on the ground.

Argent confirmed while Sheriff Stilinski sent a silent nod to Liam and I: _are you guys okay?_

We nodded back to him, my hands holding my mate close. _We’re fine._

“Let’s load ‘em up, get ‘em outta here.” The Chief ordered, the Deputies at his heels dispersing to grab a hold of the hunters and haul them to their feet.

“Wait, _wait!”_ Edith started crying as she was dragged away. “ _Theo.”_

My head snapped up at her use of my name, my body turning to shield Liam from her view as I glared at her.

Her grey eyes were watery as she looked over us.

“In our bedroom, top drawer of the nightstand.” She spilled as the other four were taken up the stairs. “ _Take it._ ”

I frowned, glancing down to Liam in confusion as he mirrored my expression. The blonde woman was taken away with helpless sobs and gasps, the pack watching after them as the Police Chief nodded to Sheriff Stilinski before disappearing.

It was quiet for a short moment, all of us glancing between each other’s faces before Scott smiled and ran a hand over Liam’s hair.

“Let’s get you out of here.”

No one asked him how he was or what happened to him, nor about how he was able to fall pregnant. The pack merely smiled supportively at us, knowing that as long as he was back with his family, the past no longer needed to haunt him. They were the most incredible group of faces we could’ve asked for and it made me feel so proud to be a part of such a beautiful pack.

They all started moving off towards the staircase, Corey laying Liam’s clothes over the end of the bed after finding them on the bench. 

I shared a calm, relieved kiss with my mate as we were left alone, my fingers unable to stop tracing over the curves of his face. I brushed away the hair from his temple, smiling when his lips tilted up at my touch.

“Hair’s grown out.” I murmured against his cheek as my fingers raked through it. “You could tie it up.”

He laughed softly, leaning back to smooth his hands over my chest before stepping away.

“Maybe.”

I stood and watched him while he turned and disposed of the oversized hospital gown the Burnetts had dressed him in, my eyes roaming over the broad planes of his back as he bent down to pull his jeans up. His head dipped down as he fiddled with his zipper, an exasperated huff leaving his lips while his arms tugged.

I smirked and stepped forwards, pressing a kiss to the back of his shoulder as he struggled with the button on his jeans.

“Need some help?”

He shook his head, hair falling over his face as he finally fastened the button with a sigh. The swell of his belly was trapped behind the waistband, the material only just tight enough around it to make a dent in the skin. He leaned back against my chest and shook his head once more.

“I’m going to need new clothes.”

I squeezed his hips in my hands, pressing a kiss down onto his throat before nodding and letting him move away to pull his shirt over his head. I held his hoodie out for him to shrug into, taking his hand and leading him down towards the staircase and out of the lab that had been his prison.

His hand squeezed mine, his legs a little weak on the stairs as we ascended. I could hear his heart hammering with joy as I brought him out into the kitchen, moving towards the foyer and leading him up to the second storey of the Burnetts’ lavish home.

We found the master bedroom and stepped inside, moving to Edith’s side of the bed and opening the top drawer of the nightstand with a hairbrush and a novel on its surface. On top of the pile of books in the drawer was a black and white image.

I frowned down at it as I drew it out, turning when Liam’s breath hitched upon seeing it. He seemed to recognise it. 

“What? What is this?” I asked him as he stared, his eyes wide with emotion.

He rotated the picture in my hands, turning it the right way up before fingering the markings.

“It’s the ultrasound picture Edith took of the twins.” He whispered over my shoulder, causing my heart to skip inside my chest.

My eyes widened as I tried to make sense of the image, a gasp leaving my throat.

“It’s _them?”_ I repeated in surprise.

Li nodded against my shoulder, pointing.  
“They’re in separate sacs. This one is the biggest, it’s older by one day. Edith called it Baby A, it’s the one on my right. And this one is Baby B, the smallest. It’s on my left.”

The breath left my lungs and I felt my heart swelling, tears stinging at my eyes as I looked over the sonogram image.

“They’re _little.”_ I murmured as we stared.

“They’re the size of a large grape, apparently.” He told me with a teary laugh. “I felt them, you know. When you roared out to me last night. They moved.”

My eyes widened even further and I turned to look my mate in the eyes. I glanced down to the bulge of his shirt before looking back up.

“They heard me?”

Liam nodded, the tears falling once more from his eyes. I reached up to wipe them away, drawing him close and hugging him in the darkness of the Burnetts’ bedroom. I squeezed my eyes shut, refusing to cry over something that wasn’t sad. Instead I focused on the picture in my hand, and on the steady beat of Liam’s heart against my own chest. I focused on the happiness coursing through my veins, at the feel of my family in my arms.

“I love you.” I told him softly, pulling back to nuzzle against his face. “So much.”

Li smiled through his tears, holding my face and nodding.

“I love you, too.”

  
***

  
Watching my mate walk outside for the first time in weeks was something so rewarding. The planes of Liam’s skin ignited with the daylight and his hair shone, the hope that filled his body at the world around him making my heart soar with joy. He hadn’t imagined himself ever seeing the daylight again, yet here we were, standing on the front steps of his captors’ home with his hand tight in mine.

He soaked up the sunlight, his eyes closing as its morning rays touched his skin and warmed him in the winter air. He hugged his hoodie closer as I led him down to the street, the pack waiting for us in their vehicles in front of the house.

We climbed into Argent’s SUV and looked upon the Burnetts’ house one more time before Chris pulled away from the curb, the GFPD scouring the property and marking it off with police tape in our wake. Their hostage was free, and he was back with me where he belonged. All of us had survived and the mission had been successful.

I was relieved when we got to leave without being questioned. I didn’t want anyone hounding Liam on anything for a long while, not until he was ready to talk about what happened to him. Asking him would only cause him to relive the past few weeks and that kind of trauma wasn’t something I wanted to see on his face.

He leaned into me on the backseat as Argent drove us back to Aunt Frieda’s, his eyes closed against my chest while his fingers played with mine in my lap. He was cherishing me, staying close and relishing in every moment we spent together just like I was doing with him.

Scott turned to us from the front seat, watching over the back of his chair at us.

“How is he?” He asked me while Liam rested against my shoulder. “He’s got colour back in his cheeks already.”

I looked down upon his head, pressing a kiss to his hair.

“He’s so damn strong.” I smiled in the car, content at the sight of our fingers entwined over my jeans. “I can tell he feels sick, but it’s not as bad as it was when we found him.”

Scott nodded, pleased.  
“It’ll be because your bond is repairing itself. Being with you would make him feel a lot better; your bodies heal each other. You’ll need to spend a few hours alone when we get back to Lydia’s aunt’s. You need to let your bond strengthen again.”

Argent nodded and looked at us in the rear vision mirror while he drove.

“Skin on skin contact is key.” He advised. “Being as close as you physically can will help repair your bond the quickest.”

I frowned in concern, looking back down to Liam. Being as close as we physically could meant sex, and he was in no state to be doing anything except resting and letting his mind recover from the past few weeks. I wouldn’t be surprised if PTSD symptoms started arising in the next few days.

“We shouldn’t.” I murmured so only Scott could hear. “Not while all of this is still raw.”

The alpha nodded.  
“Just go with your instincts, your wolves know what’s best. Just remember, he’s safe now. He’s with you.”

I accepted Scott’s advice, holding my beta close until we arrived back in the garage at Aunt Frieda’s house. Liam lifted his head from my shoulder and glanced around, his hands squeezing mine as he took in the pack members unloading from the vehicles and helping each other out of their bulletproof vests.

“This is Lydia’s aunt’s house?” He asked as I helped him down from the SUV.

I nodded, taking his hand and leading him through the garage and into the house.

“Rich old bird.” I muttered as I tugged him along, ignoring Deaton’s warnings that I needed my wounds looked at. “She has a thing for Derek.”

The snort of laughter from his throat was a welcome noise as I scooped him up and carried him up the stairs to the second storey of the house. He held onto me and looked around at the lavish royalty while I took him down the hallway and shut us in the spare bedroom with my belongings in it.

“You didn’t sleep, did you?” Liam asked me softly after I sat him down on the lid of the toilet in the adjoining bathroom.

He fingered the dark bags under my eyes with a worried frown before I stood and moved to wrench the taps open above the large bathtub by the window. It could easily fit the both of us in there, plus another person.

The steam from the hot water rose up invitingly while we shivered from the cold temperature of the north.

“I couldn’t.” I told him, returning to pull his shirt over his head. “Not while you were out there alone and chained to a damn bed. My mind wouldn’t let me rest.”

He watched me sadly as I knelt and undid his jeans, pulling them down his legs with his underwear. His eyes flitted down over his belly for a moment before his cheeks reddened, and he looked away quickly while I watched him.

I reached up to touch his cheek, a hand curling around his knee.

“Hey.” I turned his face to look at me, meeting his eyes with purpose. “You’re beautiful.”

The blue of his eyes watched me glumly for a moment before he reached for my shirt, tugging it up and over my head while the bathtub filled behind us. His eyes flitted over the bullet holes in my skin, dried blood staining me. His face worried as he fingered over the half-healed wounds.

"You're hurt."

I took his hand and pressed a kiss to his fingers before laying it in his lap.

"I'll be fine."

I stood and dropped my jeans before reaching down and lifting Liam against my body, picking him up and letting him bind his arms and legs around me. The sensation of our skin upon each other was incredible, almost taking my legs from under me as we pressed together and shared body heat. Liam’s scent swirled around me, still _him_ but slightly different with the babies in there, too. It was richer, stronger. It made my body hungrier for his.

I stepped into the tub carefully, willing myself not to slip over as I reached back and lowered us down into the water. It pooled around Liam’s sternum as I settled us in, stretching out underneath him while he straddled my body. Our eyes closed as the heat licked around us, soaking away all the trauma of the past few weeks and relaxing our muscles as they rested upon one another.

Liam turned the taps off and the bathroom was doused in a comfortable, warm silence as he leaned forward to lay himself down over my chest. My arms wrapped around him underwater and held him close, our chests rising and falling together. We synced up and slowed down, reacquainting ourselves with one another gratefully while we soaked.

“I’m so sorry I wasn’t fast enough.” I whispered against his hair, my fingers swaying over his skin in the water. “When they took you.”

His head lifted on my chest and a few fingers reached up to brush over my lips.

“It wasn’t your fault.” He told me softly with a shake of his head. “I forced you to go to work. I know you tried your hardest to reach me before it happened.”

I watched the water ripple around our bodies, my heart aching.

“But it wasn’t enough.” I murmured miserably. “What if it happens again? What if trying my hardest just isn’t enough to keep you safe?”

He sat up and frowned down at me stubbornly, his hands cupping my cheeks as he leaned down to press a firm kiss over my lips.

“It’s not going to happen again.” He stated clearly, his nose against mine. “Everyone who could possibly hurt us has been put away. It’s over, you guys did it. You ended the hunters for good. If you don’t think _that’s_ enough to keep me safe, you’re-”

He stopped himself, frowning at the words he’d been about to say. I suddenly caught onto his pause, a smile curling up on my lips as he prevented himself from finishing the sentence – because that was _my_ sentence. It was what I always said when someone was being a naïve little bitch, and it had sunken into him. He was picking up my habits.

I grinned up at him as he stared in surprise, urging him on with a squeeze to his hips.

“I’m a what? Go on, finish it.”

He smiled back down at me before biting his lip and joining our foreheads once more.

“You’re a fucking idiot.” He concluded the insult, earning a congratulatory kiss from my lips. “Can’t believe I used your asshole line.”

I shrugged underneath him, sitting up and reaching for the shampoo on the ledge of the bathtub.

“I’m growing on you.”

His smile was soft as he rotated on my lap, sitting with his back to me and tipping his head back so I could wet the long locks his hair had become. I knew we were both thinking on the words I’d just said, reconstructing them to say, _I’m growing **in** you._ Because I was.

It was impossible to ignore the fact that there were two tiny lives growing inside Liam, half me and half him. It was incredible, a total fucking miracle, but also admittedly extremely scary. We were young, _very_ young. Some would say we were too young to do this.

I remembered the terror in his eyes when I found out, the tears that fell and the way he’d begged me not to leave him. My heart twisted at the memory. He’d been so frightened that I would run, because he knew I might not be ready for something like this. I’d only just gotten the hang of admitting my feelings to him and now there were two actual babies inside him that we would have to raise together.

I should have been shitting myself, but I wasn’t. Because deep down, I knew I’d always wanted this. I’d always wanted my life to turn out okay in the end. I even saw myself with Liam and a few kids in the future, but never imagined it would happen like _this._ I expected adoption, surrogacy at the most.

But this? These babies were _ours,_ one hundred percent Theo and Liam, and it was something only we could do. No other male couple in the world could do this, not for another hundred years if legends about true alphas were real. This was something Liam and I had together, something so incredibly amazing that there was no way I could even think of being afraid of it.

I knew Liam had mixed feelings about it; just the way his shoulders were tensed and the way he kept biting his lip and zoning out while I washed his hair was enough indication. He was worried, unsure. Ashamed.

“Hey.” I caught his attention softly after the conditioner was all washed out.

He turned to face me, raking his hair back from his face. I reached up to touch his jaw, my eyes searching him.

“You’re scared.” I observed, watching as his eyes widened slightly at the fact that I could see right through him.

He nodded after a moment, his brows starting to worry again over his eyes. I smoothed a thumb over the crease in his forehead, trying to ease the worry out of him.

“Why?”

“Because we didn’t plan this.” He answered lowly, looking down as his fingers spread over my chest. “I’m still in _school_ and I have my whole life ahead of me, I’ve barely _lived._ This isn’t even supposed to be possible, Theo.”

I nodded, supporting him silently with soft strokes to his collarbones.

“I… I tried to hate them.” He told me softly, eyes watching the water around us as he tensed with confusion. “I thought you’d run when you found out and I tried so hard to hate them for it because I never asked for this. I never asked to be some… _phenomenon_ , and I told myself I’d lose you because of them.”

I felt the ache in his chest, the things he felt resonating inside me through our bond. I felt the conflict tearing him in two and reached up to pull him closer, trying to do anything to make it stop.

He shook his head as I pressed us together, holding onto me while the crease in his brow deepened.

“I don’t know what to do, Theo.” He rasped out. “I don’t know how to deal with this or if…”

_If I even want them._

The words cut through the both of us, lingering unsaid in the air between us while the decision waited to be made. We needed to choose.

I pressed a kiss over the bite mark in his throat and leaned back to look at him.

“What do you want to do?” I asked him quietly, my voice just barely echoing off the water. “All other issues and worries aside. Deep in your heart, what do you want?”

He looked up to meet my eyes, his lip trembling with emotion.

“I want this.”

The way my heart fell in relief told me that I’d been unconsciously holding on for him to say those words. I’d been afraid that he wouldn’t want this, that he’d wish the two little miracles away like they’d never existed. I wasn’t sure I would’ve been able to handle it if he did.

Liam cried as he admitted it aloud, his fingernails digging into my shoulders as he lowered his head to hide the battle he was fighting. He was in total agony inside his head. 

“I want this, but it’s not-”

I stopped him, lifting his chin firmly and looking into his eyes once more.

“No buts.” I told him clearly, wiping the tears from his surprised eyes.

“Theo, there’s so much it’s going to _change,_ we can’t just ignore the issues it’ll raise.”

“No, but we’ll _deal_ with them.” I said confidently, holding his face to keep him from looking away. “That’s what we _do,_ Li. You and I _deal_ with shit. _So_ we’re young and inexperienced and only just recovering from violent histories. So you’re still in school and we have like no damn idea how to _do this_ , and people are going to stare and ask questions because this kind of thing isn’t usually possible-”

“You’re not helping.”

“But that’s _them._ ” I continued, ignoring his interruption. My hands spread over his cheeks and I joined our foreheads. “People can think what they want, but this is _us._ You and I are fucking strong, Liam. We’ll figure it out. This will grow on us and I know you’ll work your ass off to graduate high school even if it’s the last damn thing you ever do. As long as we’re happy, all the rest will fall into place. I’m going to be right here next to you and I’m never going to leave.”

My mate held onto me as the breath left his lungs, more water spilling from his eyes.

“You want this?” He asked incredulously through the tears. “You want _them?”_

My heart screamed my answer, every fiber of my being exploding with happiness.

“ _Yes.”_ I nodded against his forehead, holding him steady as he broke down in my hands. “I want all of it, Liam. I want _you_ and these babies and _us,_ and our lives are going to be so fucking incredible. I’m going to be right by your side and I’ll be here to support you when you need me. And even when you don’t need me I’m going to annoy the fucking shit out of you because I’ll never leave you alone.”

I coaxed a breathy laugh out of him, wiping his tears as the smile I’d missed so much spread across his face. I touched my fingers to his happiness, nodding.

“I’m with you, baby. All the way. I promise.”

He wrapped his arms around me and fell into my chest, knocking me back against the side of the tub as our lips met in the most incredible kiss we’d had to date. It was filled with _everything,_ from the happiness to our love and laughter and even to the niggling nervousness that hung in the back of our minds because we were _doing this_ , we were having two babies together. We were going to become parents and of course it scared the shit out of us but we wanted this. We wanted this so damn bad.

“I love you.” Liam panted against my lips as he ground down on me, my hands roaming every inch of his body and reminiscing with it. “I love you so fucking much.”

I gasped into our kiss as his touch sent my nerves tingling, my body reacting to his in mere seconds. Our wolves nuzzled and courted each other, every inch of us begging to be united. I broke away as he lowered my palms to his ass cheeks, my fingers kneading in and squeezing without my permission while we panted.

“Li, we shouldn’t.” I gasped against him. “You’ve just… we’ve just…”

“We _should.”_ He argued, his lips pressing tens of kisses over my forehead while the water splashed in the tub around us. “We need this.”

_Fuck, yes we do._

I held his face as he stood up on his knees, nosing against him before he took hold of my thickness under the water.

“Are you sure?”

He paused to glare sharply at me and I relented immediately, shaking my head and pressing a quick kiss to his lips.

“Don’t ask. Got it.”

“When will you learn?”

I held his hips as a lazy grin spread over my face, the response of _never_ dying on my lips as he sat and sunk down onto my length in one entire drop of his weight, my fingers digging into him and my head falling back as the groan left my lips and echoed around us loudly.

“ _Fuck!”_ I gasped up to him as he squeezed around me, his chest letting out overwhelmed whines that were meant just for me.

We held each other’s faces and tried as hard as we could to kiss properly when Liam started to ride me, bouncing himself up and down on my cock in an immediate rhythm that had my toes curling and my balls tightening.

“ _Oh my fuck, this is good.”_ I moaned while I held him, my knees lifting to support him while he rose and fell against me like a pro. “ _Baby.”_

His fingernails dug into my throat and the water started to spill over the edge of the bathtub, the cries of our moans and groans echoing off the walls and coming back to tease us while my hips started to meet his at the drop, thrusting up into him as we tried to get me deeper, closer.

Liam drew blood on my skin and leaned down to lap it up while I held his hips and pounded up into him as quickly as I could from under the weight of the water. His teeth dug in and another moan left his throat when I rammed into his prostate, his rim squeezing and tightening around me as I endeavoured to hit that spot over and over again.

“ _Unh! Hah! Theo,”_ He tried to gasp into my skin. “ _Fuck me.”_

I brought his head up from my throat and did as he asked, crushing our lips together and crying into his mouth as I felt myself starting to slip. My consciousness prepared to leave me as we fucked in the water, making a mess on the tiles and bringing ourselves closer and closer to the edge of the earth.

“ _Li… I’m…”_

He leaned back to look into my eyes as I tried to tell him, his chest flushed pink with exertion as we kept up the intoxicating pace. He nodded down to me, fingers smoothing over my cheeks and down my throat before settling on my pecs and digging in.

“Cum in me.” He begged ruthlessly as he rode me, his eyelids falling heavier. “Fill me up, Theo. _Please.”_

 _He’s going to kill me._  

“ _Fuck!”_ I whined, voice hoarse as I started to spill. My brows worried and I held onto him tight as my eyes squeezed shut. “ _Liam!”_

My beta clenched around me as I granted his request, filling him up and fuelling the fire in our blood that burnt for one another. He clung to me and his hips stilled as I emptied into him, his breaths hot against my throat among the kisses he pressed to my skin.

I barely gave myself time to recover before taking hold of him and lifting us up from the water. I took us out of the bathroom, dripping water on the carpet while I carried Liam to the bed and lowered us onto it. His thighs welcomed my hips from under me and he took fistfuls of my hair to brace himself as I bore down on him and started to slam into him.

I hit that sensitive little spot inside him _hard,_ over and over and over again until my scalp started burning with the force from his fists, his voice crying out as loud as he wanted as he clenched around me and exploded between us, the breaths leaving his chest in erratic gasps while he painted our chests with his orgasm.

His lips found mine shakily, swollen and red and so easy to bite as we trembled and spilled together atop the bedsheets. Our skin soaked the duvet and we were wet and sticky with all kinds of fluid, but it was exactly how we wanted it. We tangled together as Liam rolled onto his side, taking me with him and keeping me deep inside as he nuzzled into my chest with a deep, exhausted, satisfied huff of breath.

“I love you.” He sighed into me, already starting to drift off with the spinning inside his head.

I wasn’t too far behind him, the tingles having turned my body numb while I wrapped around him and protected his body from the outside world. I tipped my chin up to press a lazy kiss to his forehead before letting my limbs slacken, our bond twining and strengthening inside us at the affection and contact. We were healing together. 

“I love you.” I repeated in a sleepy whisper over his skin.

I felt every inch of his body against mine as we drifted off, both of us needing the rest badly after the past few weeks. We surrendered to the heaviness and fell asleep together, all the while tiny little rolls and nudges poked from Liam’s belly to mine.


	18. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Liam’s POV

  
When I opened my eyes, I was back there. In that place.

Tubes were piercing into my skin on both wrists and chains held me down to the bed. I struggled against them as hard as I could but they wouldn’t give.  _No. This has to be a mistake._

I panted, feeling my heart die inside my chest at the sight of the Burnetts’ lab with all the grey walls and machines and medical equipment. _I escaped. I left this place and Theo… Theo had me. He had me in his arms._

It was like I never left – I was still as nauseated and weak as before, I was still alone and aching and depressed, and the pack rescuing me had all been a dream. A brutal, hopeful dream meant to rip me apart from the inside out.

Tears stung in my eyes as I replayed our time together over and over in my head: Theo telling me he’d never leave me, telling me he wanted the babies. The love we made and the way I’d felt so utterly complete again. It was all a lie, a myth. A hallucination. I was stupid to have believed it to be real; life never turned out that way. Nothing ever went as perfect as that; the Theo I knew would never want _children._

“ _FUCK!”_ I screamed out into the lab, yanking hard at my chains and squeezing my eyes shut while the tears fell, because I was in agony.

This was so cruel and painful. It was the worst possible life and I wanted no part in it. I wanted to _end_ it. I knew I would never get to be happy, and even if I did get to see Theo again for real, he would run when he found out about the pregnancy. He’d tell me I was disgusting, an abomination, and he’d leave me. And I couldn’t handle that. It would kill me.

“I loved you so much, Liam.”

My eyes snapped open when the voice murmured those words, looking up to find Hayden at the end of my bed with a gun pointed to the twins inside me. _Not this again._ Her eyes were hateful, vindictive and merciless as she scowled down on me. But they weren’t the brown I was once used to. They were hazel. _Green._

I blinked hard, trying to shake the remnants of Theo from my mind as he distorted the image in front of me. But when my eyes opened again, it was _him_ holding the gun to my womb. His finger was ready, comfortable over the trigger as he glared at me from above the bed. I started to cry as the betrayal pierced through my heart.

“Theo, _no.”_ I sobbed as he crawled onto the bed over my legs, his eyes so bright and familiar but clouded with hate. With _murderousness._ “Please, you can’t! I love you. Please don’t-”

He rammed the gun harder into my belly and I cried out in fear, the tears dribbling down my cheeks as he leaned over my face. I could smell him, his scent metallic from blood and thick with nothing but pure hate. He smelled like he did when he tried to make me kill Scott. When he betrayed the pack all those times. He didn’t smell like my Theo, and part of me was thinking that maybe he never _was._  

“You’re disgusting, Liam.” He muttered over me, pleasure shining in his eyes at the sight of my tears. “You’re a _freak._ How could anyone possibly _love you?_ ”

He was breaking my heart. I felt myself dying inside from the pain, because this was too much. This was worse than death, worse than torture. I was slowly being ripped apart, one layer at a time, and it was lasting an entire lifetime.

“ _Theo, please! This isn’t you! Come back to me!”_

“Theo’s gone.”

The voice changed. I jumped and wiped at my eyes, the tears blurring my vision until I focused again on the person above me. This time it was like looking into a mirror.

“He _left you._ ” Liam Dunbar said to me, his face pale with furious angst.

His eyes were bloodshot and his cheeks tear-stained, the gun gone from his hand. Instead he pressed his palm over the babies inside me – inside _us._ His fingers danced over my skin, making me squirm and writhe because it was uncomfortable, _no one_ touched it and it scared me when they did. This Liam knew it too, because he held me still and continued.

“Did you honestly think he would stay after he found out you were an anomaly?” He hissed over the tip of my nose. His eyes were bright and blue over mine, almost glowing. “An abomination? You’re _pathetic,_ Liam. You’re _weak._ Theo can’t be with someone as weak as you.”

I shook my head up at myself, the devastation tearing right through me.

“He said he loved me.” I whispered through the tears. “He said… he said he _wanted this._ ”

 _“He lied!”_ Liam screamed at me. It echoed through the lab around us and I retreated into the mattress. “He _lied to you_ , he manipulated you to get what he _wanted,_ and he _got it!”_

“No.” I shook my head, not willing to believe it.

“ _Yes!”_

“No…”

“He never loved you!”

\- “ _Liam, wake up.” -_

I squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head over and over again, listening to the yells of my own voice as he thwarted me – my heart – with everything I feared would happen. He slammed me with all the awful truth, broke me down into the very ground with it.

\- “ _Li,_ _please, wake up._ ” -

“You’re useless! Pathetic!”

-  “ _Li, wake up!”_ -

The gentle voice in the back of my mind grew louder, coming out from beyond the yells and screams above me on the bed. I concentrated on it, listening and paying attention as it became clearer and clearer through all the noise. The lab around me started to blur and fade.

“No one will miss you when you’re dead! Everyone hates you!”

\- “ _Liam. Baby, wake up.” –_

“Why?” I whispered to the voice, the other Liam Dunbar’s yells becoming more distant as my body started to float into darkness.

 - “ _Because it’s not real. You’re dreaming, you need to wake up.” –_

“But how?” I urged, still feeling fresh tears running back into my hairline. “I don’t know _how.”_

I felt something touch me, something warm smoothing over my forehead.

\- “ _Just open your eyes. Come back to me.” –_

My breaths started growing frantic out of nowhere, my chest tight and painful and heaving as I floated, the world behind my eyes growing darker and darker until I started to feel everything. The fingers on my forehead, the sweat over my skin, the touch of someone else’s body against mine and the wetness of soaked bedsheets below me.

“Liam, wake up. _Wake up.”_

My eyes snapped open.

I was gasping for air, crying and sobbing and wheezing all at once while I focused into the hazel green irises above me. It was dark inside the room, a single lamp on on the nightstand behind Theo. The air was cold, freezing inside my lungs, and the burn helped to ground me, to wake me and bring my body back to the present.

Theo was worried above me, his fingers caressing my face and smoothing over my heart while I woke up, the sobs and tears persisting relentlessly as I realised it was all a dream. A really awful, terrible dream. And he’d dreamt it with me. He’d seen it.

“It’s okay.” My mate reassured me breathlessly from above, his fingers smoothing over my skin rhythmically. “Baby, it’s okay. I’m here, I never left.”

I reached up to hold his face, to pull him down so I could bury my face into his throat and wrap myself as tight around him as possible. The sobs poured out of me, jolting in my chest and muffling against the warmth of his shoulder as he held me, rocked me back and forth in his arms.

I tried to breathe, tried to stop the cries and whimpers that were escaping my body without sanction. I tried so hard to stop them but they kept coming no matter what I did.

“I can’t…” I tried to gasp, but Theo already knew.

“It’s okay.” His hand held my head to him, his cheek against my hair as he held me tight and just rocked me: back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. “It all needs to come out. You’ve had it trapped in there for so long. Let it loose.”

I shook my head in his throat, my nails grazing over his skin as I fought it.

“I’m _sorry,”_ I whined into his skin. “ _I’m so sorry.”_

He squeezed me tighter, his head pressing down harder against my hair.

“You have nothing to be sorry for, baby. _Nothing._ Just let yourself cry. I’m right here.”

I listened to him, pressing myself flat against his bare body and letting _go,_ letting all the fear and conflict from the past few months flood out of me in tears and shouts and sobs.

My body was shaking and writhing on its own, trembling and jerking but I just let it – because Theo told me to. He held me close and anchored me. He supported me while my tears turned his chest into a small river, and he rocked me back and forth to comfort me because he knew the sway was lulling my head and my heart into a calmer place.

I was fairly sure I was even snotting on him while I cried, my sniffles unable to restrain the fluid, but he couldn’t have cared less. He was there for me, his presence around and inside me being more solid and powerful than anything I’d felt in my entire life. He defied all the worries and the lies inside my head, and he shot down all the things I’d been afraid of in my dream – and all without even having to speak. The way he held me, the way our skin hummed together as we touched, the way he smelled and the way his heart beat for mine reassured me that everything I’d dreamt was pure trauma. It was all the rotten leftovers from being frightened and locked up and on my way to psychosis, and he was there to heal me. Theo was here and he was _mine_ and that wasn’t ever going to change no matter how many times I dreamt it.

No one came to knock on our door in the time that I spent howling and screaming into his chest. No one stood outside our room listening and no heartbeats drew close, even though I knew every person in Aunt Frieda’s house could hear me. The pack left us alone like they knew exactly what this was – like they knew I was getting all the poison out. It showed me how much they trusted Theo to take care of me, because even Scott would have burst in by now otherwise; my screams were horrifying. He was almost like a father-figure to me, but also a brother. He was so adamant and caring and overbearing towards me, but tonight he kept his distance. I had Theo and I was going to be just fine, and he knew it like solid fact.

The tears finally lessened after what felt like an entire night spent crying. The cries and sobs quietened and my lungs opened back up to stop me from gasping so deeply. The rocking of Theo’s body under mine remained as a constant sway, a rhythm that kept me anchored to reality while I took my time coming back to him. He was patient and compassionate, wrapped around me with fingers, arms, legs and soul. And his grip on me didn’t slip once, his heart remained steady against my own. He really was here to stay, and he proved it.

When he finally let go of me, it was only to lift an arm to reach for the box of tissues on the nightstand.

He rolled us onto our sides and I lifted my head, disgusted at the mess I’d made upon his skin, but he shook his head at me before I even thought of apologising for it. His thumbs smeared underneath my lashes, brushing away all the pain from my skin before he leaned up to press a firm kiss over my forehead. I let my eyes close to savour the touch, relief beginning to settle the tremor in my nerves and limbs.

I finally stopped shaking as Theo brought a Kleenex to my eyes, wiping gently at my lashes before letting me take over to clean the snot and spit away. All the while he stayed right there, so close against me with his fingers raking softly through my hair. All I saw when I looked into his eyes, apart from exhaustion, was pure love and loyalty. It made me wonder whether he’d seen this happen to someone before; if he’d watched while someone broke down into millions of pieces and screamed until their throat was raw.

Theo had seen a lot of things, but something told me never this.

He was acting on instinct, the blood bond between us guiding him in the right direction to help me through this. And I loved him for it. I loved him so much.

I looked up from the tissue, meeting his eyes to say it, but found that I didn’t need to. He was waiting, looking right back at me with that particular shine in his irises and the familiar heat in his skin that I knew was his love. Every part of him was screaming it, twining around me and encasing me in it. _I love you, too._

He gave me a gentle, barely-there nod and my lips twitched in just the slightest of smiles before I nodded back. He took a deep breath and his fingers stroked through my hair one last time to land at the back of my head, his palm drawing me in and against the bridge of his nose for a slow, full, tender kiss.

And it was the last part of the healing process, the last piece to the puzzle. Every shard of my soul had been reassembled, laid out to meet at the cracks before Theo came in and glazed them back together, stitched up all the seams and repaired every single split and fracture. The outcome was altered, a little different than it had been before, but it was repaired. It was stronger.

I finally reached up to touch his face, relishing in the smoothness of his cheekbones under the pads of my fingers. His skin was soft and warm and just the right temperature. His kiss pressed a little deeper as I touched him, a silent encouragement to get as close as I wanted, so I did. My legs untangled from his and my knees lifted, Theo rolling up and on top of me just enough for my thigh to slide up the mattress underneath him and wrap around his waist, my ankles linking and crossing over the small of his back before he leaned back down onto his side. He pressed close and let his limbs devour me, smoothing over my skin and trying to love every inch of me as wholly as he could.

Our mouths opened against the other and we squeezed each other tighter as he slowly sunk up into me, stretching me and deepening until I was full with him. Our kiss grew deeper and slower and his arms trapped me to his chest, one hand closing around the back of my head to bury into my hair, and the other squeezing around my ass to grind up closer. I held him just as tight, letting my arms twine around his neck and under his shoulder as he started nudging at my insides with slow, heavy, languid thrusts, hitting deep up inside my belly while his hips rolled and made figure eights.

It was close and slow and hot, and so deep. It was everything we needed to connect to each other, to become one physically and match the way our souls were twined together tight inside our chests.

Theo took my pain and turned it into pleasure and warmth, and the bond inside us told me I was doing the same for him. We were healing each other from the dread that plagued us inside while we were apart. We literally needed each other to survive.

It went on for a long half-hour, the both of us just content with the nudges and rolls of Theo’s thrust as though it were a slow, tantalising drug that settled us down and cleared our heads. We never really finished, no orgasms exploding inside us to bring heavy release. We remained in the middle, teetering together on the edge between unbearable pleasure and gentle, deep strokes of bliss. It was dizzying and endless and so satisfying, allowing us to stay together for as long as we wanted.

Eventually we slowed to a stop, neither of our bodies needing the movement to generate pleasure. Our bodies purred and pleasured us just from Theo being inside me, the wet burning heat of our connection down below sending shocks and tingles and moans through us all on its own.

We closed our eyes against each other, our lips only just touching while we rested. We stayed in a state between awake and asleep, being kept conscious by each other’s breaths and the pulsing low in our bellies from the sex. We stayed that way for hours while the sky outside grew darker and the sounds from the pack downstairs grew louder. The house was relaxed again now that everyone was convinced Theo and I were okay.

I laid there counting our breaths, feeling the press of our bodies together while our abdomens rose and fell with the expansion and deflation of our lungs. It was one of my favourite feelings when I was with Theo like this, just the sensation of _existing_ against each other. If this incredible human wasn’t breathing, I didn’t know what I’d do.

Another few minutes passed while we breathed, the room so comfortably quiet while we laid there and basked in the pleasure and relaxation, but one particular breath made my eyes slip open.

I stirred just gently, tilting my head down from Theo’s to look between us, where his stomach had risen against mine before a barely-there nudge had poked at him from inside me. His head tilted down against mine, too.

“Did you feel that?” He whispered against my cheek.

I nodded while we watched ourselves breathing.

“I forgot they were there.”

Theo’s chest jumped slightly as he let out a soft laugh, his fingers rubbing tenderly into my scalp. I felt him smiling down at the roundness of my belly.

“I still can’t believe it.” He admitted softly while his fingers swayed over me. “Like, this is real. _They’re_ real.”

I nodded against him.   
“Neither can I.”

He let out another gentle laugh before I looked up at him. _What?_

He tilted his head, the smile beautiful over his lips.

“We’re going to have to do research on all of this, you know.” He lifted his eyebrows as he stated it. “We know nothing about it – about pregnancy or what to expect, or even about babies.”

I agreed with him, laying my head back down and joining our noses again.

“I know. I do remember some things Edith said when she came downstairs.”

Theo nodded softly against my face, pressing a gentle kiss to my lips to reassure me – silently telling me that it was okay to talk about the past. I didn’t need to be afraid of it because he’s _here_ , he’s got me.

“She talked about things I should be eating,” I continued at a whisper. “I need twice as much iron… heaps of protein and calcium. Stuff like that.”

“Mm? What about things you shouldn’t eat?”

I leaned into the fingers that came to stroke over my temple.

“Most types of fish,” I grimaced as I tried to remember. “They’re high in mercury. Raw meat, raw egg. Caffeine. She lectured me about pizza a lot.”

Another kiss descended upon my lips and I could taste the smile in it.

“See? You know more than you thought.” Theo encouraged me softly, coaxing a soft smile from my own lips. “You’ll need to write it down for me so I don’t poison you when we go home.”

I opened my eyes to his, so in love with the green that shone through. I lifted a couple fingers and stroked under his lashes. _You’re so beautiful._

The fingers he had on my temple stroked back. _So are you._

“You can’t be doing _all_ the cooking.” I argued in a murmur against his lips. “I’m still capable of taking care of myself.”

He lifted his shoulder in a shrug.   
“I want to. Looking after you makes me happy. And now there’s two more reasons to do it.”

We stared into each other for a little while, love swelling in our chests at the life we were about to start building. Theo leaned in for another kiss, his hips tilting just enough to coax a moan up from my throat.

“They’re going to be beautiful, Li.” He whispered.

My heartbeat quickened just slightly at his words, my mind reverting back to when Mark and Edith first discovered the babies. Theo noticed my distraction instantly, his fingers tracing along my jaw to bring me back.

“What is it?”

I swallowed.   
“I’m just thinking about what Mark said. About them.”

“Mm?”

“They’ll be half trueblood beta, half Chimera, right?” I earned a nod before continuing. “He thinks they won’t have to shift on the full moon.”

Theo’s brows rose slightly in surprise.

“He told Edith they’ll be hybrids, the first of their kind. He even said they’ll be incredible.”

I watched as the pride started to swell inside my mate. The smile lifted upon his lips and he nodded.

“They will be. They’re _ours._ ” He whispered tenderly. But his expression suddenly changed.

I felt subtle panic creeping up as his eyes turned fearful, his fingers halting on my throat as he shifted his head to look down to the babies.

I reached up, touched his cheek. _Talk to me._

“What if they don’t make it?” He offered faintly. “They’re half Chimera. What if something goes wrong? What if they start bleeding mercury, Liam? They’ll die from some form of failure, just like all those test subjects the Dread Doctors used.”

I froze with him, my eyes worrying with alarm at the idea. _Could they?_

I shook my head.   
“But _you_ weren’t a failure. You were a success.”

“But that doesn’t mean-”

“Yes, it _does._ ” I held his face and brought him closer. “They have your blood. They’re part _you_ and they’ll be just as strong. Besides, the failures were genetic. The mercury only came when the subjects’ bodies rejected the extra set of DNA. The babies aren’t undergoing that process; they’re Chimeras by blood. By _inheritance._ Not by force or experiment.”

The fear slowly left my mate’s eyes as he processed the information. I could see his mind working it over and over, trying to find a loophole like he’d grown up being trained to do. I waited, watching him until he eventually found none.

“They’re just inheriting my blood.” He concluded, and I nodded against his nose. He frowned after a moment, though. “But they can still do what Mason did. One of them could absorb the other and-”

“That’s not going to _happen,_ Theo.” I reassured him adamantly. “It’s more common when you’re over thirty and even then it’s only a 30% chance. It happens when one of them isn’t developing properly, but these two are _fine._ Edith would have picked it up if one wasn’t okay.”

I felt the relief in his skin before he let it show, his brows slowly relaxing and his eyes closing while he tipped his chin up to press a kiss to my forehead, his arms tightening around me. He let a slow, deep breath out and nodded in submission.

I watched while he looked back down, his eyes roaming over my belly between us.

“Can I ask something?”

I nodded and pressed a soft kiss to his jaw.   
“Anything.”

“How old are they?” He met my eyes. “Because we never noticed before you were taken and they grew _a lot_ in the weeks before I found you.”

“When I first woke up in there, Edith came in.” I started, feeling Theo stiffen just slightly as I spoke about the past. His fingers reached up towards my lips to stop me but I pressed mine against his own. _It’s okay. I want to talk about it._ “She told me about what they wanted me for and immediately started with hormone injections, to try getting me to ovulate.”

Theo’s eyes closed as he heard it. I could feel his wolf stir in distress but I smoothed my fingers over his jaw to comfort him.

“I thought they were making me sick and that’s why I was still throwing up and bloating but after they found out about the babies, Edith said the hormones must have accelerated their growth in the week that I was receiving them. The twins were conceived the night we first had sex but when the ultrasound was done she said they were big enough to be nine weeks instead of four.”

My mate’s brows lifted in surprise.   
“ _Shit._ How long ago was that?”

I frowned while I tried to remember.   
“She took the ultrasound on a Tuesday. Eleven days ago.”

“Do you think they’ve grown much since then?”

I nodded, feeling fear generating inside me as I thought about it. I tried to focus on the feel of Theo around me, in me. _It’s okay. You’re going to be fine._

“Yes.” I acknowledged softly. “They’re getting bigger. I can feel it.”

I was surprised to see a gentle smile lifting at his lips.

“Maybe they’re really happy in there.” He suggested, glancing back down to them with an eyebrow raised in question. “Maybe they’re growing quickly because you’re strong enough to take it.”

I shrugged, trying to ignore the way my heart sped up at his words.

“I suggested that at first, but Edith said it was the hormone injections.” I paused when something came to mind, pondering on the thought before vocalising it softly. “Maybe now it’s because you’re with me.”

I heard his heart jump, too. His face swirled with a mixture of emotions as he considered it.

“You think I make them grow?”

“I think we heal each other, make each other stronger. They knew when you arrived in Montana. We could feel you and when you roared out to me, they moved. Because they knew who you were. They wanted you.”

His entire face softened and I watched as his eyes grew shinier, his brows lifting just slightly in emotion as he looked down to the babies. Seeing him soften over them made something inside me burn with happiness.

“And now that you’re with us,” I concluded. “They’re happy. They’re getting bigger.”

“Fuck.” He whispered, closing his eyes and bringing me in for a kiss.

Our lips met and it was full, firm and emotional. I held onto him tighter and he nudged his hips up, pressing deeper into me and drawing a gasp from my mouth into his. He drew me as close as he could, ending our kiss only to press more across my face.

“Does it scare you?” He asked over my nose before his lips kissed it. “That they’re getting bigger?”

I nodded, closing my eyes so he could kiss my lashes.

“Yes.” I admitted in a whisper. “It… makes me _nervous._ We’re actually doing this; we’re having babies, and it’s scary. But at the same time I’m a little excited.”

He smiled against my temple, nosing against me.

“Because they’re incredible.” He finished for me, understanding. “They’re ours and it’s… a _miracle._ They’re real humans and they’re _us._ I feel the same.”

We opened our eyes to smile at each other before Theo looked back down. I could feel all the emotions swelling in his chest as he looked upon the roundness between my hipbones where his babies were growing. He was in awe, growing fond of it.

He stared for a moment longer before meeting my eyes, an expression in his own I’d never quite seen before. He looked desperate, hopeful.

“Can I touch them?”

_Oh..._

I knew he felt the skip of my heartbeat at the question. I was surprised and a little unsure, because the only times anyone had touched my belly was when I had no other choice, and Theo knew that. That’s why he asked for permission. The babies were his, _ours,_ but he wanted to ask me first before he touched them. He wanted to make sure I was ready.

_I love him so fucking much._

I resisted the sting of tears in my eyes, leaning into the fingers that stroked over my cheek.

“ _Yes.”_ I nodded, letting the smile spread across my lips. He held my face and pressed another gentle kiss over my smile. “Touch them.”

I saw the, _are you sure?_ before he said it, smiling wider when he stopped himself from letting it out. He smiled back, pausing for just a moment to let his eyes ask anyway. I nodded.

_I trust you._

His eyes were so green, alight and wondrous as he leaned back from my chest just enough to uncover my belly from between us. He stayed deep inside me, his left hand never leaving my cheek while he reached down with his right. I clenched around him just slightly, a subtle little shock of pleasure to tell him it was okay. My heart was frantic when he leaned his head against the side of mine and let his fingers touch my skin, smoothing over the surface of my belly for the first time.

My breath hitched and so did his, the both of us oversensitive at what was happening.

I leaned into him, shifting my hips to give Theo complete access to his babies. His fingers were firm upon my jaw, stroking for just a moment. _Thank you._

I let my muscles loosen and relaxed against his body while his fingers ran over the swell of my belly over and over again. It was different to feel him touching it, unlike how it had been with Edith and Mark. His skin glided softly against mine, warm and familiar and _safe._ It sent tingles up my spine and caused flutters in my chest.

I closed my eyes and just _felt_ him, letting my mind follow his fingertips over my skin in gentle, explorative strokes – back and forth, back and forth. The joy exploded in my chest, a smile spreading across my lips as I felt it.

_Theo’s touching the babies. He’s touching them._

He felt me, our bond allowing him to experience my emotions. He lifted his head and I watched while his eyes found my smile. He smiled back, the happiness so beautiful on his face as he leaned in to press our lips together for the thousandth time.

The combination of our kiss and the weight of his palm as it spread over our babies ignited a warmth inside my soul that I hadn’t realised I’d been missing. It was an incredible happiness that had tears running over our lips as I held my mate close, overwhelmed gasps of joy leaving my lips.

He held me right back, burying his face into the bite on my throat as his hand left the babies to bury into my hair. We hugged into each other for a long minute, embracing the new sensation that was washing over us. It was love, but a much different kind. It was for each other, but because of the babies. _For_ the babies.

Our heads lifted and Theo breathed a laugh at our tears, reaching up to thumb mine away while I soaked up his.

“Is this okay?” He choked on the happiness in his throat as we fixed each other up.

I smiled back, nodding as my fingers slowed upon his cheeks.

“Yeah.”

Our lips met again before he lowered his fingers back down, this time a little more confident as they swayed over my skin. The smile remained over his lips as he explored, feeling and following the surface and pressing gently.

Another breathy laugh blew from his lips.

“It’s firmer than I expected.” He noted while he felt around. “Tighter and fuller. And it’s smooth.”

I nodded, my head against his as I watched his hand. He leaned into me, his head giving mine a gentle nudge. _I love you._

The smile started to hurt my lips. I relished in the fascination and love in every aspect of Theo’s behaviour. It was in his smile, in his eyes, in the way he held me and the way he was touching the babies. Seeing him so in love only made _me_ fall even deeper in love _._

He relaxed against me, his fingers poking and pressing over the expanse of my skin.

“Is it sore?”

“A little.” I nodded. “It hurt a lot when I was at the Burnetts’ but it’s much calmer now.” 

He looked up for a moment to smile softly.   
“Is it because of me?”

I smiled back.   
“You know it is.”

His grin grew wider before he looked back down, pride swimming in his eyes while his fingers swayed.

“You lessen my discomfort, you ease it.” I mused aloud with a gentle shrug. “It’s a bond thing. Besides, it only aches when the babies are really growing.”

He nodded, his fingers slowing before he lifted them away. He met my eyes with a thoughtful expression, a thumb smoothing over my cheekbone.

“You’re afraid of them.” He whispered softly, the green of his irises watching me sadly. “The idea of loving them still frightens you.”

I took a deep breath and lowered my head onto his shoulder.

“I convinced myself you’d hate them.” I uttered against his skin. “I felt something for them because they were a part of you, but I was so scared you’d leave. I burnt it into my mind that they would ruin me. Ruin us.”

“But they didn’t.” He nudged against me. “They made us closer, stronger. I’m still here and I’m not going anywhere. You don’t have to fear falling in love with them, Li.”

The ache only lasted inside my chest for a fraction of a second before Theo chased it away. He took my hand and slowly drew it down.

“Here.”

My breath hitched when he pressed our hands over the babies together. I almost flinched away from my own touch but Theo reassured me, his hand squeezing mine before spreading our fingers across my skin and letting them start to stroke across the surface. I fell into it, threading our fingers together and allowing myself to feel the babies properly for the first time since I found out they existed. Theo was right – it was firmer than I expected. My skin was smooth and extremely warm, my womb slowly expanding and stretching as the babies grew inside me. It was foreign and the idea that we were having twins still kind of frightened me, but not in the traumatic way that it used to. It was frightening because it was real, because it felt _right._

My mate held me while we stroked over them together, pressing a firm kiss to my hair.

“See? There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

I nodded against him, sniffling back more tears before I sighed and shook my head at myself. _Oh my god._

Theo turned to me.   
“What? What’s wrong?”

I blew a breath out and dropped my head back against his shoulder with a soft whimper.

“I’m going to get so huge.”

The laugh that burst from his chest was wonderful, so surprised and adoring and absolutely my favourite sound in the world. He grinned down at me and pressed another kiss to my head, holding me closer while he stroked my hair back.

“You are.” He agreed with a laugh, tipping my chin up to meet my eyes. “But it's going to be so beautiful.”

I smiled back, hope and comfort shining through from my heart about the babies for the first time ever.

I closed my eyes and accepted the kiss that my lover offered, full and wet and so strong with love. _Maybe this won’t be so bad._

We laid there exchanging deep, totally-in-love kisses for a long while, both of our palms resting over the babies comfortably. Eventually we stretched out and moaned, itching at our skin where my dried-up cum from last night was smeared.

“We need a proper shower.” Theo grunted, forcing himself to part with my body and sitting up. “And a fresh blanket.”

I nodded, taking his outstretched hands when he stood up and offered them. He helped me up, pulling me into a hug before connecting our lips once more and leading me over to his backpack by the bathroom door.

He handed me a set of his own clothes, standing and turning with another set for himself before holding out a familiar rectangular object.

“You lost this.” He smiled softly.

I turned my phone over in my hands, smiling back at him when the lock screen shone up at me. _Friday_ _, 1 December 8:03 p.m._

“Thank you.” I turned to put it on charge on the nightstand but paused when Theo snatched it away. “What are you doing?”

He keyed his way into my phone and scowled at the picture I had as both my lock and home screen – the lacrosse field.

“You need a new background. You can’t have _school_ on your phone every time you look at it.”

I shrugged, not seeing the issue.   
“It’s the lacrosse field. That place has been my outlet for the last few years.”

Theo opened the camera and pushed me onto the bed, dropping down beside me and aiming the screen at our faces. I realised with a blink that he and I had never actually done anything normal together like this – taking selfies. I didn’t take selfies on a regular basis anyhow, but it proved to me that we were the least normal couple ever.

“You look like your dog just died.” He nudged at my ribs gently, still looking at our reflections in the camera. “We don’t want that on your lock screen.”

I jolted, coming out of my short whirlwind of thoughts. Theo turned his head to me, suddenly serious.

“What’s the matter?”

I shook my head.   
“We’ve never done this. Normal couple stuff.”

He watched me softly.   
“Does that upset you?”

_Does it?_

I let myself smile softly, shaking my head. As good as it felt to be normal with him, it wasn’t _normal_ to be normal with him.

“We aren’t a normal couple.”

He smiled back, leaning across to smack a kiss to my cheek.

“We’re a pair of psychos.” He nodded, readjusting the phone above us and looking at the both of us together. “A really fucking _pretty_ pair of psychos.”

It made me laugh, something I couldn’t remember doing properly in… _forever._ He was absolutely right. We _were_ pretty together. We looked good together, like we belonged. I’d never actually seen what we looked like next to each other, but now that I had I couldn’t look away.

_We’re perfect for each other._

“Ready?”

I nodded confidently.   
“Ready.”

Even our selfie turned out perfect, because it wasn’t normal. It wasn’t charming or cute and it definitely wasn’t romantic.

Now every time I opened my phone, our faces would shine back up at me instead of a lacrosse field. I would be met with my own expression, serious and horrified and staring into the camera while Theo licked a long stripe up the side of my face.

“I like it.” He commented proudly while we laid there and stared at it.

I smiled and turned to face him.   
“I like it, too.”

He leaned across to kiss me contentedly before shooting up from the bed. A surprised cry left my mouth when he scooped me up, my limbs scrambling to wrap around him as he turned and carried me into the bathroom.

“C’mon.” He grinned on the way. “Have something to show you in the shower.”

“ _Theo!”_

  
***

  
When we finally made it downstairs, we entered the kitchen to find the pack cleaning up from dinner. Every face lifted to spot us, elated smiles spreading over their faces. Argent, Parrish, Jackson and Ethan were missing, presumably spending the night at their hotel.

Mason approached us carefully, his eyes watching Theo before he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into a hug. I hugged my best friend back, my heart softening at the familiar scent of his skin. He smelled relieved, happy.

“I’m so glad you’re okay.” He murmured into my shoulder, taking a moment to drop his usual upbeat attitude in favour of something more tender. Something had really scared him. “We were so worried about you.”

I nodded against his hoodie, staring into the fibers of the material. I wasn’t sure what time frame he was referring to, whether it was while I was missing or one hour ago upstairs while I screamed into my mate’s chest. Something told me _both_ , with the way he held onto our hug. This was different for Mason.

“I know.”

He finally let me go, stepping back to look over my face. I tried to smile, but everyone in the room knew it wouldn’t come so easy. Theo’s hand closed around mine and our fingers slotted together instantly, squeezing and reassuring each other that it was okay. Recovering was going to take time.

Mason turned to gesture to the oven.   
“We saved you guys some dinner. We weren’t sure when you would come down so we kept it warm for you.”

I felt Theo smile beside me before he nodded, his fingers squeezing mine once more.

“Thank you.” He looked over to me with a stroke of his thumb across my knuckles. “You need to eat.”

I avoided everyone’s gazes, grimacing when my stomach twisted uncertainly at the idea of food. Since Theo found me the nausea had diminished completely, but now that I could smell the strong odour of chicken – even from across the kitchen – the sickness stirred. Theo knew, his hand abandoning mine to slide around my back and draw me into his side.

“Not so fond of solids right now.” I murmured, swallowing at the discomfort in my gut. I couldn’t understand; I usually loved chicken and now the smell was making me sick.

Scott appeared next to Mason, his eyes flitting down over my belly before focusing on my face sympathetically.

“Theo’s right, Liam. You need to eat, even if it’s just a little. Your body needs it.”

_The babies need it._

Deaton nodded from the dishwasher.   
“He’s right.”

I shut my eyes, letting my weight fall into Theo beside me while I took slow breaths and tried to mentally overcome the nausea. The chicken really did smell strong, it was awful.

The arm around my lower back tightened, Theo’s fingers rubbing against my hip in gentle encouragement.

I finally nodded, my shoulders loosening up in surrender. I opened my eyes to watch while Mason retrieved two dinner plates from the oven, Scott stepping closer to run a hand over my head.

“Proud of you.” He whispered before letting go, and Theo and I moved up to the breakfast bar to sit upon two tall chairs.

The plate was laid in front of me and I stared down at it, the colour of vegetables being a sight I’d missed over the past few weeks. But the chicken.

It was normal, there was nothing wrong with it at all. It was crumbed and cooked in butter, a scent that usually had me basically drooling. Now all it did was make my stomach turn. But I needed it, I needed the protein. Maybe once I tasted it I’d feel a lot better about it. I was probably just over-hungry.

I picked up the knife and fork, piercing into a cube of potato and lifting it to my mouth. It was the most flavoursome thing I’d tasted in what felt like forever and I let myself enjoy it. I tried the carrot and succeeded, and the same with the broccoli. I gained enough confidence to pierce my fork into the chicken, cutting myself a slice and staring at the white insides of the meat. The smell rose to my nostrils and went straight to my gut, bringing the vegetables up my throat before I could stop them.

“Okay _, nope.”_

My cutlery clattered to the benchtop as I reached up to cover my mouth, my eyes wide and my body scrambling to get down from the stool. Theo reacted immediately, standing up with me and wrapping an arm around my shoulders to rush me to the nearest bathroom. Mason’s voice called out from behind us, asking what was wrong, but neither of us answered.

I fell to my knees before the toilet and gripped the porcelain, Theo’s fingers holding my hair back while I threw my dinner up. My back heaved. My stomach contracted and lurched. All because I smelled the chicken.

It took a few tries for my stomach to settle down, my breaths deep and slow while I attempted to resist another gag reflex. When I succeeded in not throwing up for a full minute, I dared to sit back on my heels and rest into Theo’s chest behind me with a groan.

He held me to him, a hand smoothing over my forehead to calm my body while I trembled and caught my breath.

“So no chicken.” He announced softly above me with a nod of understanding. “Number one on the list of things you can’t stomach.”

I shook my head in disbelief against his chest.   
“I love chicken.”

I felt the smile on his lips when he pressed a kiss to my hair.

“Not anymore, you don’t.”

“It’s heightened sense of smell.” Came a voice from the doorway that I quickly recognised to be Deaton’s. “Being a wolf yours was already advanced, but now it will be much more powerful. It’s a side effect of pregnancy called hyperosmia – the extravagant level of hCG in your blood has triggered hormonal changes, and those hormones can alter the way you perceive certain smells.”

I rolled my eyes at the toilet.   
“When will it _stop?”_

“When you are no longer pregnant and the gonadotropin levels drop.”

I shut my eyes, the back of my head dropping against Theo’s chest while his fingers smoothed through my hair. More footsteps approached and I smelled Scott in the doorway with Deaton.

“Is he all right?”

“Chicken makes him sick.” The vet explained to him. “Might want to remove it from his plate.”

Theo tipped my chin up to meet my eyes, the green in his own settling me down.

“You ready?”

I nodded, letting him help me to my feet. I rinsed my mouth with cool water in the sink basin before following him back out to the kitchen, the pack having removed the chicken from my plate.

Theo ate it instead and I managed to swallow down all of my vegetables successfully. Deaton sat on the other end of the breakfast bar with his head in the newspaper, looking up with a pleased expression when I finished my dinner.

“Does it feel better to have something in your stomach?”

I nodded, resting my elbows upon the counter and raking my hair back with exhaustion.

“The nausea will be difficult until you get used to it. Tell me, have you had a transparency scan done yet? Did the Burnetts perform one?”

The frown fell over my brow in confusion as I looked to Theo. He was just as clueless as me.

“What’s a transparency scan?”

“An ultrasound that is used to detect possible abnormalities in the development of the foetus, such as chromosomal defects or down syndrome. Being werewolves the chances of defects are highly unlikely, but it helps to have the procedure done. How many weeks gestation are they?”

Theo’s hand fell over my knee under the benchtop and I welcomed his touch, lowering my own hand over his.

“Almost eleven weeks, maybe more. They’re growing a little fast.”

Deaton put the newspaper down with a nod.   
“The ideal timing is at thirteen. You should get one very soon.”

Scott leaned over the bench beside Deaton and looked between Theo and I.

“We’ve decided we’ll be leaving for Beacon Hills in the morning,” He told us. “So we can catch some good daylight hours for the drive. I’m thinking you guys should go with Stiles or Argent so there’s room for you to stay together.”

I looked to Theo.   
“Argent has heaps of space in the back of the SUV. We can deck out.”

His lips turned up in a smile and he agreed with a squeeze to my knee.

“You will need to be wary, though.” Deaton warned seriously. “Sunday is the third of December. It’s the full moon.”

Theo’s expression fell in front of me and we both froze. _Shit._

“How is he going to handle that?” Scott sounded just as concerned.

“It would be best if the two of them were home in time for it so Liam can be as settled as possible.” Deaton caught both mine and Theo’s gazes. “I advise that you refrain from shifting at all. Shifting entails vigorous contraction of the muscles and if that happens while you’re pregnant, the twins could be crushed.”

My hand was beyond squeezing Theo’s. It was pulverising it.

I could _crush_ the babies if I let myself shift. But Theo had stopped me from shifting before, the night we mated each other. If he stayed close and kept me calm like last time, I could manage. I could maybe even learn to resist it altogether by the time nine months rolled around. Not crushing the babies was as strong a motivation as any to try my hardest.

I eventually nodded to Deaton, my mate’s fingers a constant caress in my own while he tried to comfort me. I could tell he was confident we could do it, and that the babies would be okay.

We left the kitchen in search of entertainment, joining Derek, Stiles and Isaac in the cinema room. Game of Thrones was playing on the wide screen, the three of them comfortably laid out on wide recliners together. The stifling scent of popcorn almost choked me when we entered but I quickly got used to it, lowering onto one of the luxurious recliners next to Theo and laying my head over his heart.

I barely paid attention to the show on the screen, merely seeing it as something to watch while I relished in the feel of his body heat under me. His arms were around me and his wrist only just draped over my waist, his fingers nudging softly at the side of my belly where the twins swelled. I was getting used to it, having him touch them. Instead of discomfort and nervousness, it was now starting to fill me with affection. I still probably wouldn’t dare to touch them on my own without Theo, but it was a start.

_You don’t have to fear falling in love with them._

Malia and Mason soon joined us, sitting down on our right while we rested. I could feel their eyes on us while I dozed, their smiles contagious. I soon smiled back, shaking my head and asking what their deal was.

“You look happy, Liam.” Malia pointed out softly over the dialogue from the TV. “You look like you’re right where you belong.”

The fingers stroking over the babies shifted just slightly, my shirt riding up to my belly button. Theo tickled at my skin in his own way of agreeing with my friends. _Yes you are._

“What does it feel like?” Mason probed curiously, his eyes focused on the babies. “Must be weird.”

I nodded.   
“Very. It just feels full all the time. Gets sore when it grows.”

My friends’ eyes followed the gentle sway of Theo’s fingers. I felt like a freak, self-consciousness expanding inside my chest while they stared at the womb I’d been gifted, but Theo shot it down immediately. He was extremely attentive to our bond, monitoring my emotions and jumping on them when they turned for the worse. It was like he had the ability to destroy the negative emotions with one simple shift of his skin upon mine. Sometimes it was just a nuzzle of his head against my temple or the gentle squeeze of his arm around me.

He was protecting me from the darkness he knew was still trying to haunt me. It had been able to ruin me at the Burnetts’, but not now. Now Theo was here to fight it away.

“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” Mason started slowly, my mate’s posture stiffening under me at his words. “But… how is this possible? Scott said it was because of him but I don’t understand completely.”

Theo bristled, his chest starting to puff up with defensiveness under my head, but I put a hand to his heart.

“It’s okay.” I told him. “I want to.”

“You don’t have to, Liam.” Malia reminded me while Theo glared but I shook my head.

“It’s fine. Edith told me it’s something that’s happened to the bitten betas of true alphas for centuries. She said the Moon Goddess bestows them with gifts. Strength, compassion and life. Life meaning fertility.”

“So this Moon Goddess gave you a _uterus?_ ”

“You’re _pushing it,_ Hewitt.” Theo muttered in a low growl, but I ignored him.

“ _Yes.”_ I said firmly, talking over my overprotective mate. “Scott didn’t know and neither did I. But that was why I was sick at school before the Burnetts took me. I was already pregnant.”

 _Wow,_ my friends’ faces said. I almost wanted to crawl away and hide under a rock, because this was _abnormal_. But another nudge of Theo’s fingers reminded me that _no, it’s not. It’s a miracle._

Mason grinned.   
“Can’t believe there’s two. You have to name one after me!”

I felt the sarcastic insult rising in Theo’s chest and reached up to cover his mouth before it expelled, but someone else interrupted for us. Scott leaned over the back of our chair, his eyes wandering from Theo and I over to Mason and Malia’s inquisitive expressions.

“That’s enough.” He spieled them gently. “Don’t hound him about it.”

My alpha lowered a hand to the back of Theo’s neck, his thumb circling into his hairline while he bent down to place a protective kiss over my head. It was the most affectionate Scott had ever been and it surprised me that he was comforting Theo without being pushed away. The two of them had grown fonder of each other.

I looked up at the alpha in question and he looked right back.

“Can I talk to you guys?”

We stirred, leaving Malia and Mason to join the others in watching Game of Thrones while we followed Scott out and upstairs to the hallway outside the bedrooms.

“Is everything okay?” I asked him when he turned to lean against the railing.

“Of course.” He nodded honestly. “I just wanted to make sure you’re both all right. How are you feeling?”

Theo and I looked to each other before I fell into his side, the both of us nodding. We knew Scott was referring to the screams he heard while they were eating dinner.

“We’re good.” Theo answered, looking down upon my hair. “Really good.”

Scott was pleased, the worry leaving those brown eyes immediately. He smiled.

“What about your bond? How’s it healing up?”

“It’s solid. Feels like it’s back at full strength.”

I agreed with Theo’s claim.   
“I don’t think either of us are going to want to be apart anytime soon. Not even for a few minutes.”

Theo knew what I wasn’t saying: we felt just as close as we did before, almost like we were the same person inside two bodies.

“Good. That’s how you should be.” Scott’s smile grew a little bigger. His eyes softened, looking over the both of us. “I’m really proud of you guys. You’ve both been so strong, and the decision you’ve just made together is huge. It’s life changing.”

I felt my heart fluttering with warmth at his words, that he was _proud_ of us.

“You deserve those babies.” He continued softly. “You’re going to be so incredible together and I want you to remember that I’m _here_ if you need me, through all of this. Even if I’m at school.”

The pointed look he gave me made me shrink a little. I left Theo’s side to hug him, our wolves nuzzling affectionately while my alpha held me. His scent was earthy and so familiar that it made me feel safe. Almost as safe as I felt with Theo.

“I should have told you about the Burnetts.” I murmured into his shoulder. “I just didn’t want to ruin college for you. You were so happy on the phone.”

His hands rubbed up and down my back.   
“You ruined _nothing._ I have the time to catch up, college is more lenient than high school. Just promise me you guys will call me if you need me, no matter what.”

I knew Theo nodded, and I did too.

“I’m just so glad you’re _safe.”_ Scott whispered into my hair.

“The pack was amazing. They couldn’t have done it without you.”

Scott leaned back, brushing away a stray hair before looking over my shoulder at Theo.

“Actually, Theo was the biggest help. He worked so hard to try and find you and he _felt_ you, used your connection to track you down. It’s him you should be thanking.”

He let me go, smiling at my mate knowingly. I frowned in suspicion – there was something they knew that I didn’t.

“What?”

“Have you told him?” Scott asked Theo with a growing grin, and Theo shook his head.

“Told me _what?”_

_What the fuck have they done?_

The two smiled at each other before Scott met my eyes.

“Theo’s part of the pack.”

My eyes widened and I looked between them. Scott nodded as though to emphasise it and I turned, burying my face into Theo’s throat while he wrapped around me. The tears came on their own, the happiness bursting inside my chest for him. All Theo had ever wanted was a pack, people to call family. He’d spent his entire life on his own with no one to rely on and Scott and my friends had given that to him, accepted him as one of their own after everything that had happened. He’d let himself open up enough to let them in and they’d forgiven him for the past and done the same.

Theo’s arms were tight around me, holding me close while I laughed and cried.

“Baby, you don’t need to cry.” He soothed me with a smile, bringing my face up and wiping the tears away. “It’s not _sad._ ”

I nodded in his hands, blowing out a breath of exhaustion.

“I know, I’m sorry. It’s just… these damn _hormones._ All I do is cry.”

His smile was adoring before me, his fingers so gentle upon my cheeks. He leaned in and our eyes fluttered shut when our lips met, sharing an elated, full kiss. He was completely mine, but now he was part of my pack too. He was friends with my friends, trusted who I trusted. And they finally trusted him.

“It’s normal to cry, Li.” Scott chuckled from the railing. “You’re pregnant, you have to expect it.”

I hugged back into Theo, turning my head on his chest to look at Scott.

“ _Thank you.”_

My alpha nodded at me, smiling and clearly so happy.

“He deserves it. You both do.” He looked down at his phone as he slid it from his pocket, the late hour shining up from his lock screen. “You also deserve to get some sleep. It’ll be a long drive home tomorrow, you both need your rest. Set an alarm for eight o’clock, yeah?”

“Yeah.” I agreed, closing my eyes when his hand reached out to smooth over the back of my head.

“Look after each other. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Night, Scott.” Theo’s voice was soft in the hallway while we watched our alpha descend the stairs. He lifted my chin and pressed another kiss to my lips before taking my hands and leading me backwards, down the hall to our room.

We undressed and disposed of the spoiled duvet from our bed, finding another in a wooden chest by the door. We curled up together underneath it, naked and tangled while our body heat mixed beneath the sheets. It was comfortable and clean and warm, my eyes sliding shut easily without fear of seeing nightmares in the darkness beyond.

Theo’s scent engulfed me and I cherished it.

“I’m so proud of you.” I murmured against his chest in the darkness. “For what you went through before you found me. You were so strong to pull through that.”

His heart was steady beneath my ear, his hands treasuring my skin under the sheets.

“I would’ve looked forever if I had to.” His voice hummed against me. “Nothing in the world will ever matter to me more than _you_. I promise.”

His fingers lifted my chin up for a kiss and I obliged willingly, my eyes never needing to open for me to find my way to him. The taste of him on my tongue was the most welcome thing in the world, the only thing I ever wanted to taste until I died. Every part of me was so in love with him, and every part of him was so in love with me.

A hand trailed down my body, lowering to spread over the twins in my belly. I relaxed into Theo’s touch, our lips still joining lazily upon the pillows while the heat of his palm sunk down into our babies to keep them safe. His skin on mine created such a warmth that I never wanted that hand to shift. I wanted it to stay there for as long as he wanted it to.

I opened my eyes to him, finding the hazel green already staring back under the moonlight from the window. I stroked his cheek, soaking up the beauty of him.

“I want you to know everything that happened to me.” I whispered against his lips, comforted by the palm he had over my belly. “I want you to see it.”

The hazel green stared at me loyally.   
“You shouldn’t force yourself to talk about it. Not until you’re ready.”

I nosed against him, shifting to get closer.

“I feel like our bond needs it.” I explained into the darkness. “It’s like there’s something missing between us and I feel like it’s because of the things we don’t know about what happened. Do you think we can show each other the past?”

“It might be possible.” His lips brushed over my nose. “But I think we should wait until we’re home. We’ll be alone and safe in our own space.”

I nodded to agree. He was right, we would connect better if we were alone. In our own home was the perfect place to try, with everything we’d built surrounding us. We would be able to deal with the trauma together, support each other.

“You never told me you were part of the pack.” I mumbled over his lips sleepily.

I felt his shoulder shrug just slightly against me.

“It just kind of happened.” He admitted softly. “They told me I was family and that was it. It was done. Is there supposed to be some kind of initiation?”

I shook my head.   
“Not really. Just the fact that everyone has accepted you is what made the change happen. You’ve created a bond with every one of them, made something special.”

I felt the lazy smile on his lips before I heard it, his fingers nudging at my belly.

“You’re the most special one.”

I grinned back.   
“You’re so fucking sappy.”

The arm around me tightened and the low laugh rumbled from his throat, just the sound sending aroused tingles through my veins.

“You made me this way. It’s your fault.”

I accepted the kiss he planted on my lips before breaking away to let out a long yawn. His hands held me closer.

“You’re exhausted.” He stated softly. “Let yourself sleep."

I cracked my eyes open to smile at him.   
“Only if you do.”

He smiled back, nudging his nose against mine one last time before agreeing, our limbs settling down together and our breaths slowing as our eyes fell shut.

We fell asleep easily, our bodies twined together and our hearts beating as one. Theo’s hand stayed protectively over the babies, keeping the three of us safe and warm all through the night.


	19. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The smell of disinfectant and latex was one that was well-engrained into my memory by now. It was unpleasant and sharp in my lungs and I was sure I knew where I was before I even opened my eyes. I expected grey walls and no windows, to find my limbs chained to a bed while drips and tubes poked out of me.

But I’d been wrong.

When my lashes parted and I blinked, I was in a hospital bed, but not inside the grey windowless lab I expected. I was inside the Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital, laid out on a stretcher inside a dark room. A room I soon recognised as the morgue from Theo’s nightmare.

It looked exactly the same, deserted and lightless except for that one surgery lamp illuminating the floor. But if I was seeing Theo’s nightmare, why did I just wake up on a stretcher?

My head turned and my eyes sought out the body drawers where I knew he had to fight his way out of thousands of times in Hell, but the very one he always awoke trapped inside was already open. I lifted my hands, turning them over above me to find that they weren’t Theo’s, but my own. My hands, my fingernails, my wrists and my arms.

I looked down to observe my clothes, confirming that I was in the same set Theo had lent me before the pack left Aunt Frieda’s. It was wholly and solely _me,_ so where was Theo? This was _his_ dream. Or, I thought it was.

I sat up from the stretcher and got to my feet, noticing that they were indeed bare just like Theo’s had been. I made my way out of the morgue, still flinching when the squeak of the door echoed through the silent hall beyond. I looked up and down the corridor, trying to catch a scent of my mate or his sister.

“Theo?” I called softly, listening hard to the silence that followed. “Theo, I’m here.”

There was an uncomfortable stir inside my stomach and I looked down to watch as the babies tumbled inside me. I tentatively put a hand to them, feeling their stress rolling against my fingers as though they were anticipating something bad, something awful. I let my thumb stroke over them once.

“It’s okay. We’ll find him.”

I started walking, making my way down towards the nurse’s station where Theo had run so many times before while trying to escape from Tara. I waited to hear the hiss from her lips from behind me, but none came. Only a laugh. A soft, whispered laugh.

When I turned, it was the other Liam Dunbar waiting for me while Tara sat bleeding obediently at his feet. His eyes were aglow with his wolf and his talons were out while he glared at me sadistically.

“What did I tell you?” He mocked me from down the hallway. “Theo’s _gone._ He left you and he isn’t coming back.”

_This never happened in Theo’s dream._

The babies rolled inside me again and I felt my womb start to ache with the activity. They were clearly afraid.

I put a hand to them and backed away slowly with a shake of my head.

“He’s here somewhere.” I denied while they pursued me at a deathly slow pace. “I can feel him, he’s close.”

The pitiless smirk on the other Liam’s face was confident, one of his brows lifting while I continued to back away.

“Believe what you want. The truth is right in front of you.” Liam looked down to run his fingers through the wet drags of Tara’s hair. “Theo doesn’t want you. But his sister does. Don’t you, beautiful?”

The gaping, bloody remains of Tara nodded up to Liam, her eyes flashing over to me when he gave her a nudge in my direction. _No…_

“Go get him.” He smiled to her, looking back up to watch the fear on my face as she crawled towards me. “She won’t take much. Just the life she’s owed.”

“ _Theo!”_ I cried out, the blood leaving my face in panic when my back hit a wall. “ _Theo, please!”_

Liam laughed while Tara knocked me down, her hair dripping over my clothes as she crawled up my body. Her fingers smoothed over my chest when she sat on my thighs, her eyes glazing over mine before her hands trailed downwards. I panted underneath her, squeezing my eyes shut and bracing to feel her fingers tear into my heart, but they flew open in shock when she kept going.

Her palms stopped over my belly, the twins rolling and stressing under her fingers while she watched wondrously. My chest rose and fell with dread while the other Liam’s words replayed in my mind.

_She won’t take much. Just the life she’s owed._

“No…” I exhaled in panic. “No, _not them! Not them!”_

I could see the awful smile on Liam’s face from over her shoulder while he knelt behind her, encouraging her with pats to her head and uttered repetitions of, _do it. Take them._

I tried to grab a hold of her wrists, to yank her hands away from the babies but she was impossibly strong, her touch barely budging while I tugged and pulled and yelled underneath her to _stop._

“They might not be her brother,” Liam shrugged above me. “But they’re her brother’s _blood._ Taking them will make him suffer a lot more than taking his heart, don’t you think?”

I shook my head, the tears falling when Tara lifted my shirt to roam over my skin.

“You can’t.” I sniffled underneath her. “Please don’t.”

She gave me a soft smile, something twinkling in her hazel eyes before her jaw set and her fingers plunged deep into my belly. My nails dug into her flesh and the scream that left my throat shattered every window in the hospital while she tore through my skin, digging her hands deeper and deeper before grabbing hold of one of the babies and ripping them out of me.

I wailed and cried as she lifted the little body from my womb, blood spilling down my waist and pooling on the tiles underneath me as she held it to her chest and smiled. It was no bigger than a pear, just one pink little half-formed human with the umbilical cord still attached and dripping with placenta.

My screams continued until my voice grew hoarse, the words _no, please!_ spilling from my lungs over and over while some invisible force shook at my shoulders. I was yanked this way and that, the top half of me being shaken and jolted while my vision started to fade out. Someone’s cries surfaced from the back of my mind like an echoing memory, growing louder and louder as I died on the hospital floor.

“ _Li, you have to wake up. Li! Liam!”_

My eyes flew open and my chest heaved while the air sucked into my lungs, the first thing I could focus on being the pale beige upholstery on the roof of Argent’s SUV. The hands on my shoulders were Theo’s, his face panicked and distraught over me while I woke and came back to reality.

I sat up immediately, scuttling back to press against the back of the backseats from Argent’s boot space, the world passing by outside the windows as sunset descended behind the horizon. I caught my breath, finally making sense of my surroundings and slumping against someone’s duffel bag in exhaustion while Theo’s hands cupped my cheeks and his forehead lowered to mine in relief.

“Fuck.” He whispered while we panted. “That was a bad one. Almost couldn’t bring you back.”

I curled my fingers around his wrists, my eyelids falling heavy while his thumbs brushed underneath.

“I’m okay.” I breathed, leaning into his forehead. “Thank you.”

He shook his head against mine, worn out from the panic. He shifted and positioned his head over my heart, stretching out until he was laid down against my side. His heart was frantic in the air around us while his arms encircled my middle, one snaking under my back while the other cradled the twins.

“Did you see it?” I asked softly, my fingers smoothing through his hair. “The dream.”

His head nodded over my heart, worry still stiff in his shoulders.

“Wasn’t even asleep and I saw it.” He sighed. His skin was golden in the sunset while we drove south. “I’m so sorry you had to experience that. If you’d never seen my nightmares you wouldn’t have had to-”

“You can’t blame yourself.” I interrupted him stubbornly. “This is only happening because my brain still has shit it needs to get out. Whether it’s your dream or one of my own, it’s still going to happen until I’ve moved on.”

He sighed again, his chest expanding and deflating against my side. His fingers reached down to stroke over my belly in gentle circles.

“Just wish there was some way for me to help.”

A frown fell over my brow when my mind suddenly registered the soreness of my belly under his fingers, a deep ache throbbing from low between my hipbones. The babies actually had been moving all along, not just in my dream.

Theo’s head tilted up on my chest when I winced.  
“What is it? Are you sore?”

I pouted down at the pain, nodding and shifting my hips to shimmy myself down into a more comfortable position on the floor of Argent’s boot. I found that my spine ached too, stiff and in knots and screaming out for the softness of a mattress instead of the back of a four-wheel drive.

“I think they’re growing.” I answered, tipping my head back against the duffel bag and closing my eyes. “They were unsettled in my dream, too.”

Theo agreed with an _mm,_ the vibration from his voice tickling into my ribs. His fingers stopped their stroking to give way to his palm as he laid it flat, letting his thumb make soft circles over my skin while the babies stirred and nudged at the surface.

“They knew something was wrong.” He exhaled as he felt them. “Do you feel sick?”

My fingers scratched tenderly at his scalp.  
“Only a little. Need to pee again, though.”

“Too much information, kiddo.” Came a voice from the seats behind our heads, easily recognisable as Peter’s. “Not everyone needs to know when your bladder needs relieving.”

My eyes rolled from behind my eyelids, my mouth opening to emit a retort, but Theo’s came first.

“ _Fuck you.”_ He cursed through the SUV irritably. “He can say what he wants, you just mind your own damn business.”

“A little hard when your conversation is all we can _hear.”_

“Well, you know where the door is.” Theo offered lowly. “Feel free to leave anytime.”

“Who invited him anyway?” I muttered aloud to emphasise. “Fairly sure the only purpose he serves is to piss everyone off.”

“Now, Liam.” Argent’s voice lectured from the driver’s seat. “Peter played a big part in the fight before we rescued you. He took on the thickest of Monroe’s army for you.”

“Doesn’t give him the right to make asshole comments.” Theo argued upon my chest. “The least he could do now is keep his bitch mouth shut.”

“Jesus.” Peter muttered under his breath. There was a momentary pause before, “Are you _sure_ Liam’s the pregnant one?”

“ _Watch it.”_

“Because my guess is that Theo is the one with the mood swings.”

“I will come back there and cut your tongue from your throat if you say one more fucking word, I swear.” The growl vibrated against my torso and the car fell quiet, Theo’s breaths aggravated over my skin while he huffed.

No one spoke, clearly understanding the serious irritation in Theo’s tone and choosing to let him cool off. He was a protective mate with his pregnant beta and the other men in the vehicle didn’t need to be wolves to see it, or to know that his threats were legitimate. Even Peter knew to keep quiet.

I continued scratching softly through his hair to calm him down, the heat from his skin burning just a little too hot despite the freezing temperature outside the SUV. His breaths calmed down soon enough, his fingers resuming their strokes and circles on my skin. I checked the time on my phone over his head, smiling a little at the selfie that lit up my background.

_4:57 p.m._

“We’re twenty minutes away from the north Nevada border.” Parrish called gently through the SUV. “We’ll need to stop for gas – you can pee then.”

I let out a sigh and nodded, although he couldn’t see me.  
“Thanks, Jordan.”

I closed my eyes and secretly hoped my bladder would hold out long enough to reach twenty minutes. It hadn’t been so bad at the Burnetts’ but now that I was with Theo and the babies were growing as quickly as they liked, the pressure they were putting on it was increasing. We’d only been on the road eight hours and we’d stopped three times already, just for me to pee. No one even needed fuel, I just couldn’t fucking hold on.

I knew it was normal and that it would definitely get a lot worse in the future, but that didn’t make it any less annoying, or embarrassing. Then again, I was a pregnant male. I wasn’t sure it could _get_ more embarrassing.

The rest of the drive home went by fairly slowly, but Theo did everything he could to make it comfortable for us. His hands settled the aches in my body and we spent the next fourteen hours just laying together in the back, playing with each other’s fingers with our heads nuzzled together. We dozed sleepily for a few hours while it was dark and killed the time while we were awake by catching up on my favourite TV shows on Netflix on Theo’s phone, the both of us sharing earphones like kids on a bus in eighth grade.

It was an extremely long drive and by the twentieth hour I was almost crying because I wanted a proper bed, but Theo helped to keep me as comfortable as possible. And I was happy. Sore, but happy, because I was wrapped in my mate and dressed in his clothes, curled up in his hoodie and in his arms with the weight of our babies steadily growing heavier inside me. It was suddenly a really humble feeling.

The pressure they were starting to put on my bladder wasn’t exactly comfortable and I was lucky that Stiles’s Jeep needed so many fuel stops so I could pee all the time – but I was _happy._

Finally, at seven a.m. on the second of December, the pack arrived back home in Beacon Hills. The majority of them went straight to Scott’s house to kick back and celebrate before everyone parted ways. Mason, Corey and Malia were ordered to go straight home to face their furious parents about their disappearance and missing school for an entire week, which made me glad for the first time that I no longer had parents to yell at me.

Theo and I were dropped at our apartment block, neither of us in the state for celebrating or mingling. The pack understood, Scott promising he’d come to visit after the full moon tomorrow night.

I waved as Stiles’s Jeep pulled away from the sidewalk, my alpha disappearing around the corner a moment later. Theo took my hand and led me towards the stairs, helping me up to the second storey of the apartment block.

“Welcome home, sweetheart!”  
“So glad you’re okay, Liam!”

The neighbours were even calling out to us, greeting me fondly from their doorways and windows. I gave them shy waves, burying further into Theo’s side until we reached our door.

He had a smile on his face, an amused glint in his eyes as he stared at our apartment number.

“It’s actually quite funny,” He bit his lip. “I promised the house I wouldn’t come home unless I had you in my arms.”

It was sweet and corny and so unlike Theo, but I grinned all the same because he wasn’t _lying._ We laughed a little and our hands squeezed each other.

“You were talking to a house.” I lifted a brow playfully. “That’s normal.”

He shrugged.  
“ _Totally_ normal.”

I reached out to finger at a chip in the paint of our doorjamb, thoughtful.

“Do you think the house knew we’d come home with two new additions growing inside me?”

My mate turned with a poorly hidden grin, nosing against the mark he’d made on my throat before reaching down and lifting me into his arms bridal style. He unlocked our door one-handed, his face close next to mine.

“I don’t think it will mind.” He murmured affectionately, nudging the door open with his foot and carrying me over the threshold.

The scent of the life we’d built together was the first thing to hit us, and it was strange. Before I was taken it had all felt so complete, but now the past seemed much emptier. Our smell now was different to this one, our lives together were fuller. And it was all because of the two tiny babies growing inside me, the two little lives that were going to change us completely.

I knew Theo was feeling the same thing, his head against my own where he stood holding me in the entryway to our house. His eyes were roaming around the kitchen and I lifted a hand to brush his hair back. We both knew everything was going to change.

But not in a bad way. Not in the least.

Theo smiled at me softly as we both came to the same conclusion, leaning in to give my lips a gentle kiss. My fingers caressed over his cheekbones as he kicked the door shut behind us, stepping further into the house.

“I never knew you could be romantic.” I uttered against his lips between kisses.

He pulled back to screw his face up at me.  
“ _What?_ I’m not.”

“Are you serious?” I looked over his shoulder and gestured to the door behind him. “Carrying me over the threshold of our home? That’s extremely romantic. You’re turning soft, admit it.”

The grin spread across his face and he rolled his eyes at me with a nod of submission.

“Yeah. Okay, sure.” He carefully put me down on my feet, his arms never letting go of my waist as he pulled me close. “But it’s all your fault.”

I took the blame willingly, cherishing the smile on his lips while he joined our foreheads.

“I can live with that.”

Our eyes closed and we held each other close, both just letting ourselves reunite with the house. We were finally home – _I_ was finally home. The hunters were gone, the threat to supernatural lives was over and I was back at home with Theo. It felt so incredible.

“I honestly thought I’d never see this place again.” I whispered against him, lowering my head into his throat and inhaling him. “I thought my life would end in that lab.”

Theo held me as tight as was safe with the babies between us, keeping me close and chasing away the fear that resurfaced at the memory. His hands rubbed my back.

“You know I never would have let that happen.” He hummed into my shoulder, pressing a warm kiss to my throat. “You belong _here,_ with me.”

I took a deep breath, happiness bubbling up inside me when all I smelt was home and Theo. It was perfect, everything I ever needed. I never wanted to lose it, any of it.

“We’re going to have so many bills.” I groaned against his hoodie. “And your work probably thinks you’re dead in a ditch somewhere.”

“Nah.” He lifted his head and planted a kiss to my cheek this time. “I took care of it all. My boss knows you were missing, she gave me time off to find you. It’s all fine.”

I shook my head, staring into the complacent hazel eyes in front of me and smoothing a thumb over Theo’s cheekbone.

“You’re amazing. I owe you.” 

The smile lifted on the left side of his lips and his lashes lowered in modesty, his hands pulling me in for one more kiss.

“You don’t owe me anything.” His voice was soft, level with seriousness. “You and I are beyond owing each other things – we’re doing this together now. Completely. What’s mine is yours.”

I lifted my eyebrows in soft surprise and he nodded.

“I’m serious. Before we were kind of just taking turns with responsibilities like bills and groceries, but we’re past that. We’re so much closer.”

“That doesn’t mean you pay for everything.” I argued stubbornly, but he was having none of it.

“I’ll pay for whatever I like.” The smile spread across his face. “And that just happens to be everything. So deal with it.”

He didn’t leave any opportunity for me to object, his lips busying mine with tens of kisses until all the arguments left my brain. His fingers took their usual route through my hair, as I was sure was total habit by now, and he nuzzled against my forehead.

“I promised you I’d be here to support you.” He whispered. “And that’s what I’m going to do.”

I nodded in surrender, closing my eyes before he reached across to the kitchen counter and laid our keys on the benchtop together where they belonged. He took my hand and led me through our house.

“Your plants will need watering.”

He made me smile; we’d just come home after I’d been kidnapped for a month and he was thinking about my plants on the balcony.

We moved through the apartment, opening windows on our way to let the cool morning air in. Theo led me out onto our balcony and looked over my little garden, coming with me while I watered all the plants.

Afterwards we stood at the railing and his arms wrapped around my belly from behind, letting me lean into him as we looked out over the forest behind the school. The town was hardly awake yet, few cars on the road while everyone slept their Saturday mornings away. It was peaceful, the air just the right amount of cold around us. Californian winter was much more tolerable than up north.

A kiss lowered onto my shoulder and I took a deep breath.

“Theo?”

“Mm?”

My hands lowered to his over the babies.  
“Do you really think we can do this?”

I felt him nod on my shoulder. His fingers laced with my own.

“Yes. Without a doubt. I know we can make it work, Li.”

The way he hugged me close convinced me that we could. He was right the morning we spent in the bath when he first rescued me: we were strong. We were young, but he and I just _dealt_ with things, it was what we did. It was what both of us had spent our whole lives doing even before we met each other. Together we could manage anything.

My sigh blew out before us in a gentle puff of smoke as I looked out over the school.

“I’ve missed so much damn schoolwork.” I muttered with dread. “Ms. Martin is going to grill me for disappearing.”

“Lydia’s Mom?” Theo questioned before earning a nod. “Once we explain that you were actually abducted by hunters, she’ll have to understand. She’ll be able to help you, get you extensions to catch up on coursework.”

I bit my lip, glancing down to the bulge under my t-shirt before looking back up to the school.

“Being kidnapped is one thing but I doubt she’s going to believe me when I tell her I’m pregnant.”

I felt his protectiveness flare up like a heat that burned from inside him. His fingers tightened around mine over the babies.

“She’ll have to.” He muttered lowly. “It’s real and it’s written in history. If she’s anything like Lydia, she’ll be a fair enough woman to accept it and support you.”

Despite his reassurance, I still felt my shoulders slumping in melancholy.

“I’m going to get so much shit for it when I go back.” I mumbled unhappily. “I just know there are going to be whisperers and starers… fairly sure some kids will try to humiliate me.”

I almost heard my mate grit his teeth before he sighed deeply.

“Teenagers will be teenagers.” He grumbled. “But I promise I’ll do what I can to make sure you’re safe and untouched. I want to see if the principal will let me go to your classes with you, keep you safe through the day.”

I shook my head, tipping it back against the side of his.

“You’d never be allowed, no way. The most you’ll be able to do is trust my friends to keep me safe. Hopefully the staff will be supportive enough to keep an eye out, too.”

Another sharp sigh of frustration left Theo’s chest, dissatisfaction seeping from his skin.

“Well they can’t stop me from walking you inside to your first class, at least.” He argued firmly. “Or waiting outside your last one in the afternoons. I’ll be there as much as the school will let me.”

I stroked his fingers in mine.  
“You don’t have to, you know.”

He squeezed back.  
“I do. You’re my mate; after everything we’ve been through I don’t ever want to be apart from you again for more than a few hours a day. I’m going to do everything I can to protect you – and the babies now, too.”

He turned his face to press a tender kiss over my mating bite and I leaned into him, closing my eyes and holding onto him while he looked over the town for another minute or two. A breeze blew across the balcony around us, unsettling my hair and blowing it across the bridge of my nose. It almost made me smile to think of what Theo had said when he noticed it at the Burnetts’: _you could tie it up._

Maybe I would.

“When do you think you want to go back?” He asked softly into my ear. “School, I mean.”

I stayed quiet for a moment, taking a minute to think about it. I definitely needed time to let my mind settle down before even considering the stress of catching up with schoolwork, but I didn’t know how much time that kind of thing took.

I shook my head, at a loss.  
“I don’t know. What do you think I should do?”

Ever since meeting him, I'd noticed Theo’s gut feelings had always been incredibly accurate. If he had an idea of how long I needed, I’d go with it. I trusted him with anything, even this, although he was unsure at the question, I could tell.

I could almost feel the uncertain grimace on his face.

“That isn’t the kind of decision I should make for you, Li.” He shook his head. “It should be entirely up to you.”

I shifted in his arms, turning to face him. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and tucked some flyaway hair from his face.

“I want you to – I trust you.” I promised him softly in the wind. “Your instincts have always been incredible. Besides, sure I was kidnapped but you were the one who lost me. You need to be just as ready for me to go back to school as I do. You need to be just as mentally prepared. I’m not the only one the decision will affect.”

He looked away, biting his lip from the inside while he worked over the idea in his head. His eyes roamed over the school past my right shoulder before he took a deep breath and decided.

“I think you should take it slow.” He said gently. “Christmas break is coming soon. If you feel up to it, you could go back one week before break to catch up on stimulus you’ve missed. Get some assessment to take your time working on during the holiday.”

_I knew his decision would be perfect._

I nodded, pressing a grateful kiss to the corner of his mouth and agreeing.

“Last week before winter break.” I nodded. “That gives me two weeks. We can go and talk to Ms. Martin sometime soon and figure it all out.”

Theo approved, a hand bringing my head in to lay over his shoulder while he hugged me close.

Winter break would start on Friday the twenty-second and school would resume on the eighth of January. I was pleased with Theo’s plan; having an entire three weeks at home to work on the assignments I’d missed would take a load of pressure off. At least until second semester started and it was all systems go again.

At least the next two weeks ahead would give us time to recover and get used to the new turn our lives had just taken. I wasn’t sure I’d get used to being pregnant, but maybe I could grow accustomed to the idea that Theo and I were going to start a family in the next six months.

One of the biggest issues I knew I was struggling with was the babies – they were still a touchy subject and my brain was still traumatised from the way I’d been thinking at the Burnetts’. I’d forced myself into being afraid of them, not to mention the fact that a guy who could get pregnant was basically a target for gossip and ridicule. It was going to be hard, but maybe I could let it grow on me. Maybe I could one day look at it in the same way Theo did – that the gift was a miracle and nothing to be afraid of.

I knew it would come easier once I got used to the babies and the thought of them was no longer toxic in my mind. It would make me feel a lot better about the entire situation.

“You feel like breakfast?” Theo hummed into my shoulder before he leaned back to find my face.

I grimaced when my stomach turned at the idea of food.

“Not really. I haven’t felt like much of anything over the past few weeks.”

I could see the persistence in his expression already. He tilted his head and his eyes pleaded with me.

“I know it’s a nausea thing but you have to eat, baby. You’re growing two little humans – your body needs the energy and sustenance.” I pouted, opening my mouth to argue when he continued. “Hey, I can make you a fruit bowl. You like those.”

My heart fell, tears threatening to sting in my eyes.

“What?” Theo worried, a frown falling over his features quickly. “What did I say?”

I shook my head, sniffling.  
“It’s stupid. It’s just that fruit was the only thing I ever thought of eating, when the Burnetts had me. It was the only way I could feel close to you.”

He pulled me in again, a hand smoothing over my hair.

“You’ll never have to worry about them again, Li. I promise. You can eat all the fruit bowls you want, and you can only think of me. Yeah? The Burnetts don’t exist anymore. They’re history.”

I smiled into his neck, nodding.  
“I love you. So much.”

He gave me an affectionate squeeze.

“I love you too, baby.” He parted with me and pulled on my hands to lead me inside. “C’mon, I’ll cut you some fruit.”

He tugged me into the kitchen and left me to lean against the counter, only to open the fridge and curse generously. He flung it shut and turned with a scowl.

“We have no goddamn food. Forgot we’ve been gone for a week.”

I groaned.  
“I am _not_ in the mood to walk around the grocery store for half an hour.”

Theo pocketed his keys and approached to press a kiss to my cheek, scooping me up and carrying me out the front door.

“You know I’m not leaving you here on your own. I’ll put you in a damn shopping cart and push you around if I have to.”

I held onto him for balance, rolling my eyes at his excuse as he locked the door and carried us downstairs to the garage his truck was in.

“I’m a full grown male, fairly sure pushing me around in a cart isn’t very socially acceptable.”

I was deposited in the passenger seat and Theo’s hands smoothed over my thighs, a smirk flashing up at me.

“We’re a pair of psychos.” He reminded me. “When have we ever been socially acceptable?”

I grinned back down at him before leaning in for a kiss.

“Fine.”

“ _Yes.”_ He triumphed, climbing up past me to reach the driver’s side. “One fruit bowl: ETA forty-five minutes.”

“You’re a freak.” I shook my head at him, strapping in beside him while the engine of the truck roared to life.

His hand reached across to brush through my hair before shifting to first gear.

“And it’s all your fault.”

I rolled my eyes at him once more, silently accepting the blame for his good mood. Again, it was something I could live with.

  
***

 

Theo and I spent the night of the full moon together in the kitchen. We were making dinner together – steak, because red meat was the only meat I would agree to eat. It was the only meat that didn’t make me want to puke my guts up. Quite the contrary, actually. I almost craved it.

The two of us stood huddled at the stove together, one of us stirring the mushroom sauce and the other searing the steaks. It was surprisingly pleasant, considering the full moon was shining through the lounge room window.

All day I’d been cool and calm as long as I had Theo with me. It had been a lazy Sunday, the both of us sleeping in before spending the day curled up on the sofa under my favourite blanket, watching movies while Theo occasionally got up to hang out laundry. It all just felt so good, being home. I was back with my mate, cosy and in my own clothes, on my own sofa in my own house. I’d never realised how much I took home for granted. Now I even appreciated having access to my regular hairwash.

My heartrate had been calm all day and I was starting to think that maybe instead of making me more hormonal and aggravated on the full moon, perhaps the babies were helping to keep me calm. It might also just be the intense fear of crushing them like Deaton said that was keeping me from letting the night affect me – or maybe it was because they were two little parts of Theo inside me to comfort my wolf. Either way I felt almost fine, and whatever it was was working.

My phone vibrated on the bench beside the stove while I mindlessly stirred at the sauce, flashing with a message from Mason. I leaned into Theo’s side and opened it, wincing while I read.

“Mason, Corey and Malia all got grounded for an entire month.” I worried at my bottom lip. “They’re not even allowed to visit friends for Christmas either.”

Theo let out a low whistle, shaking his head with pity.

“That’s a little harsh. But they did just abandon everything and disappear.”

“To save _me.”_ I reminded him, feeling guilt knocking against my ribs. “I feel bad.”

Theo put my steak aside, quite rare and still slightly bloody as I’d requested it. I had a feeling it might have been a hormonal thing, to be craving meat and blood. I was a little weirded out because I never usually had my steak any rarer than medium rare, but Theo didn’t seem fazed. Maybe he thought the same thing: hormones. My body wanted the flesh and needed the iron, so I craved it.

“It was their decision.” He shrugged. “And it wasn’t like you _chose_ to be kidnapped. They did what they did to help save you and I’m sure they’ll happily deal with the consequences.”  

 _ Mason: _ _Btw, when are you planning on coming back to school?_

I let out a deep breath, thumbing my reply after taking the mushroom sauce off the heat.

 _ Liam: _ _Theo thinks I should wait a few weeks, give myself time to recover. I’ll come back the week before winter break to get the assessment I missed to do over the holiday._

 _ Mason: _ _Fair call. I think he’s right. How are the two little blueberries?_

I scowled in amusement at the text. Theo looked up from the frying pan.

“What?”

I let him read over my shoulder, pointing.  
“Mason called the twins blueberries. Do you think he’s blind?”

My mate shook his head, turning the heat off before drawing me closer and hooking his chin over my shoulder.

“I think it’s cute.” He pressed a kiss to my bare shoulder and lifted a hand to my forehead. “You still feeling okay? Your skin’s a little hot.”

I nodded on a sigh, still actively doing my best to ignore the shine of the moon from through the window.

“Yeah. Just a little restless, nothing I can’t handle.”

Another kiss to my skin.

“Good.”

 _ Liam: _ _Blueberries? They feel more like limes. Oversized limes that just won’t stop growing._

 _ Mason: _ _That bad, huh?_

 _ Liam: _ _Not bad, just… different. A little tiring._

 _ Mason: _ _Got a long way to go yet (: Rest up, Liam. We’ll talk soon x_

I put my phone down with a tired breath, turning to help Theo plate up our dinner.

“My boss texted today.” He murmured next to me. “She wanted to know if I could come back to work tomorrow.”

I nodded in interest.  
“What did you say?”

He shrugged uncertainly.  
“Nothing yet. I’m not sure if it’s going to work. There’s no way I’m leaving you home alone, but I don’t want you to have to sit in the café all day everyday just so I can work.”

“You know I can take care of myself.” I nudged at his side fondly. “The hunters are gone, there’s no one who can come to kidnap me now.”

“That’s not a chance I’m willing to take.” He said firmly with a shake of his head. “Never again.”

I sighed at his stubbornness, following him to the table and sitting down when he held my chair out for me. The steak smelled so damn good.

“What about Scott?” I suggested, cutting into my meat straight away. “He’s going to be in town for the winter break, he could come and hang with me while you’re out.”

He tilted his head thoughtfully, chewing.  
“Could work.”

“I’ll text him.” I nodded, thumbing at my phone beside my plate while I munched on a large square of meat. A moan nearly fell from my throat at the taste. “This is so fucking good.”

Theo gave me a grin, reaching over to wipe a drop of red from my lower lip.

“Carnivore.”

 _ Scott: _ _Of course I’ll do it! I can’t imagine spending the entire holiday sitting at home and listening while my Mom sweet-talks Chris from the damn kitchen. What time do you need me over?_

“Scott said yes.” I relayed through a mouthful of salad. “Needs a time.”

Theo tapped away at his phone, putting a finger up for me to wait while he messaged his boss. Only two minutes passed before he had his answer.

“She wants me there from nine to three.”

I texted Scott and he quickly confirmed his availability. So it was settled.

I knew Theo would still much rather be the one at home with me, but I couldn’t keep him stuck inside for two whole weeks before I went back to school. He was never good at sitting still for too long, his wolf always kept him alert. Besides, we both knew that if I was going to be safer with anyone besides him, it was Scott. He was my alpha and was just as strong as Theo. He could protect me if he needed to.

I slept fairly well that night considering the moon shone right through Theo’s bedroom window. My skin stayed hot despite the freezing air that came in from outside, but Theo didn’t mind one bit. He curled up to me for the warmth, my body heat keeping the bed super toasty against the winter air from the window.

I fell asleep a few minutes before midnight, able to calm my mind enough to drift off under the moonlight that usually had me wreaking havoc. I didn’t dream once and both my body and mind thanked the gods for it. Uninterrupted sleep was exactly what I needed – and Theo. The poor thing woke up every time to bring me out of the nightmares and I’d started to feel extremely guilty for it. I was glad to wake up in the morning to his well-rested face while he peppered my own with good morning kisses.

Scott came over to spend every day with me through the week while Theo went to work, the two of us enjoying the bonding time while we gamed, watched TV and went out to watch the lacrosse tryouts at the school. No one noticed we were there and it was exactly how I wanted it. The last thing I needed was students staring and pointing while they whispered about the Dunbar boy who got himself kidnapped.

Nolan did a great job organising the tryouts, despite the relentless insults Coach boomed out over the students while they ran through their drills. It made me a little depressed to watch, knowing it was likely I would never play lacrosse again before graduation. I knew there was no way I could even run a lap without collapsing or worrying about the babies, and I also knew Theo would never allow it in a million years. I had to keep myself calm and resist all strenuous activity. Playing it safe was my life now.

So I relaxed at home while my mate worked, reading a novel to get my brain working again while I anticipated returning to school in a week. I was out on the balcony with my head in John Green when Scott’s phone lit up with a call. He went inside to answer it, the frown that fell over his face worrying me immediately. I knew something was up.

When he came back out two minutes later, he seemed concerned, confused.

“That was Parrish.” He explained to my worried expression. “He said they need you down at the station. It’s about the Burnett case.”

My veins suddenly filled with dread, a feeling I thought I’d never have to experience again. My mind started running over every possible reason for the police requiring my presence. Did they want to question me? Had the Burnetts escaped or been released?

_Fuck._

I stood up and dialled for Theo, waiting impatiently while the nausea I’d beaten down for the last week suddenly resurfaced, turning me pale and raising a fever on my skin as the babies worried inside me.

“Li?” My mate answered after the fifth ring. “Please don’t tell me you’re being kidnapped again.”

“No…” I tried to keep the panic out of my voice, but failed. I shook a little while every memory I had of the Burnetts’ faces floated to the front of my mind. “I…”

“Liam? I swear to god, if something bad is happening I’m going to kill someone.”

“Parrish called Scott.” I managed to get out with exasperation, putting a hand to my forehead to ground myself. “They need me down at the station. It’s the Burnetts.”

“ _What?_ Did he say why they needed you?”

“No, but I’m freaking the fuck out, Theo.” I started to pace, attempting to distract myself from the sickness rising up my throat. “I can’t think straight and I’m panicking and I think I’m going to throw up.”

“Okay, Liam, I’m on my way. Just stay with Scott and try to keep calm, I’m coming home.”

“Okay,” I panted, falling against the wall in the hallway and tipping my head back. “Okay.”

“I’ll see you in a few minutes, yeah? Just breathe.”

“All right. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

Theo hung up on the other end and I put my hands to my forehead while Scott joined me in the hallway. He pulled me into a hug and held me firm, knowing the comfort would make me feel less panicked. But it didn’t stop the negative thoughts that pressed in upon my rationality.

_It’s about the Burnett case._

The nausea made my head spin and I held onto my alpha, praying to god I didn’t pass out.

_Please don’t be bad news, please._

_Fuck._


	20. CHAPTER NINETEEN

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this super long chapter was worth the wait, guys! I love you all x

Theo’s POV

  
“These fucking Burnetts, I swear.”

I was muttering to myself as I stormed across the café parking lot towards my truck. Letting my frustration out in short huffs and insults was the only way I could loosen the tight hold my worry had on me without going completely off the hook. These people were supposed to be in the damn custody of the police; they were meant to be taken care of. The pack didn’t put their lives on the line and take literal _bullets_ to their chests just for these federal idiots to allow something to go wrong.

I mulled on it while I drove the short distance home, barely concentrating enough on my driving while the possibilities played out in my head. What could they possibly need Liam for besides questioning? Questioning that Sheriff Stilinski had done everything in his power to ensure _didn’t_ happen. Everyone knew Liam wasn’t in a position to stand up in front of a court and testify against the Burnetts; people who could’ve killed him with a multiple pregnancy had I not unknowingly ruined their plans myself. He’d barely been able to handle _showing_ me what happened through our bond, let alone have the words to talk about it after.

I’d seen it – everything they’d done to him, everything he’d felt and everything he saw. I’d seen it all and if I hadn’t promised to him that I’d never kill again, I would have broken into their prison cells just to make their lives hell before I ended them like they desperately deserved. The fury I felt towards them was colossal, a kaleidoscope of fire and lightning and ferocious, protective roars that threatened to burst from my chest, but I held it all at bay because I promised him. I promised _them,_ that I wouldn’t kill. Never again.

I could never kill the Burnetts, but I could hate them. I supposed that would have to be enough.

I pulled the truck up inside our open garage and killed the engine, not even trying to hide the urgency with which I stormed towards the staircase. I took the stairs two at a time, wrenching our front door open and letting myself inside only to hear the panicked gasps of my mate hyperventilating down the hallway. _No._

It broke me down, shattered me. But it also made me mad. Because after everything the damn guy had been through, after everything he’d seen and tried so hard to recover from, he was back to this. Somehow the world was still punishing him, torturing him with this fear and angst. It kept trying to crush him like a bug under its boot and he didn’t deserve it. He deserved to _breathe,_ to see the light of day without being haunted by the darkness in his head. He deserved to have peace and happiness, to smile and _relax, damn it._

I followed his breaths and Scott’s low reassuring tone, rounding the corner into the hallway to find the two of them on the floor. My baby was a huddle of limbs against the wall, his hair tangled and his shoulders taut while he wheezed and tried to breathe. Scott’s arm was around his shoulders, pulling him close and trying – but failing – to calm him down. The two of them looked up when my footsteps thudded towards them, Liam’s eyes bright and blazing up at me with mixture of fear and relief.

I ducked down to him, kneeling over his thighs and taking his head in my hands to smooth the tangles away from that beautiful, terrified face. His skin was white as a sheet and his pupils were completely blown out. The poor thing couldn’t breathe and I could hear his heart pounding and racing inside his chest. He was shaking, shuddering while the panic of the situation ate away at his sanity and it reminded me of how he’d reacted when he first woke up in the Burnetts’ lab. I remembered the cries and sobs that fell from his throat in the memories he’d showed me. I remembered the way he shook and the toxic thoughts that corroded his brain until he was reduced to a lifeless corpse on the bed. Liam turned into an empty shell before the pack arrived in Montana and now I was watching the cycle begin again.

_No._

“It’s not happening.” I told him clearly, letting my thumbs soothe under those terrified blue eyes. “Not again. Scott and I are right here, baby. You don’t need to be afraid.”

“W-what if they escaped?” His breaths shuddered over his words. “Or they got let out? What if something’s gone wrong?”

“Sheriff Stilinski wouldn’t let that happen.” Scott provided confidently, the arm he had around Liam’s shoulders giving a firm squeeze. “The last thing he’d do is scare you about it. He’d go out there and deal with it himself.”

I nodded, emphasising the alpha’s words with my eyes locked on Liam’s.

“He’s right. And if those bastards do come back for you, they’ll have to get through _us_ first. We’ve got you, baby. Everything’s going to be okay. Just breathe.”

My mate closed his eyes and tried to do as I said, his breaths coming out controlled and even. His heart wouldn’t calm down, pounding inside his chest as though it needed something more. Something else to reassure him that he was safe.

Scott relinquished his hold around Liam’s shoulders and handed him over to me, letting me pull him close on the floorboards to wrap myself around him. Li clung to me, his head finding its way to my heart and his hands holding onto my arms while they encircled him. His gasps and breaths started to slow almost immediately, just the scent of my skin enough to settle all the nerves in his body.

I stroked my fingers through his hair, holding him close to my body and shushing him gently. His heart finally settled, his half of our bond calming under the weight of my half while our scents and body heat mixed. My touch soothed him and my wolf nuzzled against his, giving soft whines and whimpers to tell him that we were here and he was going to be fine. Our babies were going to be fine.

_I’m going to protect you, no matter what. I love you._

Liam’s hands let go of my arms to wrap around my back and he snuggled in closer to my chest.

_I love you, too._

I looked up to Scott, my anger and worry diminished now that I had my beta close and safe.

“What exactly did Stilinski say on the phone?” I asked him with a hand upon the back of Liam's head.

Scott shook his head uncertainly.  
“Only that they needed to see Liam down at the station, that it was about the Burnett case. I couldn’t tell whether it was good news or bad.”

My jaw ticked for a moment and I looked down over Liam’s hair before shaking my head back at Scott.

“He’s not going alone. You and I aren’t going to leave his side.”

The alpha nodded firmly, making to stand up and holding out a hand.

“We’ll go together.”

He gripped my wrist and hauled me up, my free arm lifting Liam with me. He found his feet and stepped back, his hands leaving my shoulders while he looked around for a pair of shoes. I looked to Scott.

“Did you drive here?”

“I took my bike. Why?”

I hesitated for a moment before handing over the keys to my truck.

“I’ll need you to drive us. I want to keep Liam close, keep him calm. Can you drive stick?”

The amused smile spread over the alpha’s face before he shook his head in dismissal.

“Of course I can, I’ve driven Stiles’s Jeep loads of times. I’ll wait on the street for you guys.”

I turned to watch while Liam tried slipping on a pair of his Converses, a shoulder against the wall while he reached down. I tried not to smile at how painfully adorable it was, the fact that it was already getting difficult for him to reach past the babies. I could just see him in a few months, red-faced and irritated while I put his shoes on for him from below the rounded bulge of his belly. The stubborn thing hated being dependant on people, although admittedly I’d managed to soften him up a bit over the last few months since we grew close. It was a work-in-progress.

He caught me staring when he was done, blue eyes suspicious when I failed to look away from the faded white sneakers on his feet. I was lost in my thoughts, still imagining the beauty of him in my mind’s eye.

“What?” It was almost a threat, daring me to make a comment.

I simply pouted nonchalantly and shook my head in innocence.

“Nothing. Ready to go?”

He watched me for a split-second longer before nodding, heaving a worried sigh and approaching to walk with me out the front door. I slung an arm around his shoulders and pressed a kiss sideways against his head. Scott had the truck waiting on the curb when we made it down the stairs, Liam slightly out of breath and gripping onto my hand while we climbed in next to the alpha.

The drive was only four minutes from our apartment block to the Sheriff’s Station and I tried to hold my beta close while we grew closer and closer to the news that was waiting for him inside the building. By the time Scott parked us in front of the station, Liam was shaking again. His fingers were trembling in mine and I held his head to my chest before we got out, my body doing everything it could to calm him down.

“I’ll be right here, baby.” I whispered against his hair. “I’m never leaving your side.”

“Promise me.” He uttered into my shirt. “Please. I can’t be separated from you again, I _can’t._ ”

“I promise, Liam. I swear on my life, I’ll be with you. Always.”

He took a second to process every word I said before nodding, leaning up to press his face against my throat and wrap himself around me. I held him close, Scott waiting outside the truck while we took a moment together. Liam grounded himself, reassured himself with the press of my skin to his lips and the weight of my arms around his body before lifting his head and nodding.

I pressed a slow, steady kiss to his mouth, relishing in the taste of him before following him down from the truck and leading him by his hand to the front doors of the station.

Parrish looked up when we entered, dropping his task and approaching with intent.

“Hey, thanks for coming in on such short notice.” He greeted us, looking to Liam last with a flicker of his eyes down to the beta’s belly. “How are you holding up?” 

Liam couldn’t find the right words to answer, his brow lowering in a conflicted frown before Sheriff Stilinski saved him from the question. He emerged from his office, beckoning us in with a motion of his hand.

“In here, we need to talk.”

Scott and I exchanged trepidatious, sceptical glances before I smoothed a hand over Liam’s lower back and guided him into the office behind Parrish. Scott moved in behind us, a subtle gesture that he was guarding us. _I’m right here with you guys._

Sheriff Stilinski and Parrish both watched with slight concern while I sat Liam down immediately in one of the guest chairs before the Sheriff’s desk, lowering him gently into the seat while anxiety flitted across his face.

“Is your health okay, Liam?” Noah asked slowly, looking over the two of us. “You don’t look one hundred percent.”

I knelt down beside my mate, my hands encasing his and holding them supportively before I looked up to scowl at the two men.

“Maybe because you terrified the fuck out of him with your phone call.” I suggested sternly, looking between the two while their frowns deepened. “I swear if the Burnetts are back on the streets, I’m locking them up myself.”

Sheriff Stilinski lifted his hands, stepping forward to take a seat behind his desk.

“The Burnetts are fine,” He eased us. “They’re actually on their way to a federal penitentiary with Tamora Monroe.”

_Oh._

Liam and I both looked at each other, surprise and confusion swirling between us before Scott spoke up in our place from behind Liam’s chair.

“So they’re not loose?”

“What made you think they were free?” Parrish was baffled.

We all shrugged, realising that we had no answer for the question. Absolutely nothing indicated that the Burnetts had been set free – we’d reacted purely on paranoia and fear.

“The reason we called you in was to update you on the results from the Supreme Court.”

Liam’s heartrate started to slow, Scott and I frowning in interest. We hadn’t heard much about the trial since coming home.

“The court wanted you present when the trial was held, but I refused them.” Sheriff Stilinski explained, looking between the three of us equally. “I already said I didn’t want you interviewed a dozen times and I stuck to it, I told them you weren’t mentally capable of being questioned on the entire matter. I attended the trial instead.”

All three of us fell into the surprise, our eyes widening at the news that Noah had travelled all the way to the Supreme Court of California to speak for Liam. It was at least a two-hour drive west.

“The Chief of Police from Montana also flew down to attend and speak against the prisoners. It was a long trial.”

Liam blinked under his frown.  
“What happened?”

Scott’s hands fastened onto Liam’s shoulders from behind his chair while my fingers squeezed at his. Sheriff Stilinski threaded his fingers together on the desk and leaned forwards.

“Hayden and Valerie pled guilty as accessories to kidnapping.” He murmured, the disappointment clear in his and Parrish’s faces as he mentioned their former co-worker. “Valerie was stripped of her titles and dishonourably discharged from the police force, and she and Hayden received ten years in prison.”

Despite the fact that it was what we wanted, I knew all three of us felt the shock as it hit us in the gut. Hayden, the seemingly-innocent girl who’d grown up with Liam and been part of his pack, betrayed him and was now going to be behind bars until she was almost thirty. I nearly couldn’t believe it.

Liam’s scent turned sad immediately, the distress clear in his shoulders as he looked down to his lap. Scott rubbed at his shoulders while I reached up with one hand to hold the side of his head, both of us understanding his anguish. He still had a soft spot for Hayden in his heart, understandably so – she was his first. They’d been lovers and she left to betray him, held a gun to the babies in his belly and pulled the trigger.

Noah and Jordan gave Liam a moment to feel, his eyes squeezed shut while he fought the tears. Scott and I were right there, silently reassuring him that it was okay to feel upset. She’d been a part of his life, and then a part of the trauma that would haunt him in his sleep for months yet to come. He wasn’t wrong to still care for her, but he had something so much stronger in the here and now. He had the pack, he had his alpha and he had _me._

He finally looked up, letting my thumb caress over his cheekbone before he nodded that he was alright. He held both of my hands in his and waited for Sheriff Stilinski to continue.

Noah looked down over the report on his desk, sighing.

“Monroe was trialled after them. She was stubborn, fought and argued her own case. She tried to insist that the Beast of Gevaudan murdering her colleagues was incentive enough to warrant the deaths of all supernaturals, and she insulted the court in claiming that the government was too cowardly and spineless to make the decision themselves.”

It sounded about right. The woman was a vengeful nutcase.

“The court ultimately found her guilty of deliberate genocide and sentenced her to fifty years to life in prison.”

“Good.” I muttered firmly.

“And the Burnetts came last.” Noah looked over the three of us, checking to see that we were ready to hear it. Liam’s fingers held mine tightly. “After their home was searched, evidential records investigators found placed Edith and Mark as the principal perpetrators in over sixty kidnappings which all resulted in the victims’ deaths.”

 _Sixty._ _Holy fuck._

“They kept _records_ of the omegas they tried to breed?” Scott exhaled with disgust. “Put it all in a scrapbook for old times’ sake?”

It made my blood boil, even more so to think that Liam could’ve been added to their collection. My goddamn mate could’ve died if he weren’t already pregnant. They wanted to put so many fucking babies in him, it would have killed him. No matter what they said he was capable of, if it didn’t ruin him physically it definitely would’ve mentally.

I held him closer while the fear rolled over me and floated away. _He’s here now. None of that ended up happening._

“The victims all died slowly, painfully.” Sheriff Stilinski nodded to Scott’s anger remorsefully. It was paining him to say it aloud. “Exhaustion, malnutrition, organ failure, heart failure… ruptured _uteruses…_ all kinds of awful deaths.”

My eyes shut tight and I rested my forehead against Liam’s bicep, pressing in and thanking whatever god there was out there that we found him. That my babies were already in there before they could ruin him with their experiment.

Our love had saved him.

“After further searching the property, investigators located a firepit on the Burnetts’ land. They tested the ashes and debris from the ruins and almost forty different genetic profiles came up. They were matches for the identities of thirty-eight reported missing persons from the past twelve years, one victim from so far away as Boston.” Sheriff Stilinski looked to Liam seriously. “You, are extremely lucky to have survived.”

Liam could only nod faintly, his mind swimming with the information that the Burnetts killed and burned all those omegas. They failed and were tossed aside like rotten fruit, just like I’d seen the Dread Doctors do so many times before. It was sickening. I thought I was heartless before, but these people were pure evil. There was no coming back from wickedness like that.

“How did their trials go?” I finally asked, my voice low in the room around us.

We all waited, still in the silence while Sheriff Stilinski looked down over his report wearily.

“Edith and Mark Burnett were found guilty of over sixty counts of first degree manslaughter and identified as psychotic due to the extreme grief over their inability to have children. They were sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.”

The breaths that left us were heavy, laced with relief, alarm and incredulity.

“The Chief Justice wanted to order the death sentence instead but the remainder of the court advised against it.” Noah explained gravely. “I was there when it happened. All you could hear was the court arguing and Edith’s screams. It was a horrific event.”

Something in Liam turned to anguish, his eyes snapping up to Noah’s when the words left his mouth. I heard his heartbeat quicken and the breath that left him was upset, disbelieving. I knew he had a sort of twisted reverence for Edith inside his heart. She’d been gentle to him, almost loving. I called it Stockholm Syndrome, but I could understand how the last few encounters he’d had with her could soften her presence in his mind.

I smoothed a thumb over his knuckles, a silent way to reassure him that the death sentence wasn’t passed. They were going to live.

But inside Scott and I, triumph burned. The Burnetts got what they deserved in having to spend the rest of their lives behind bars and suffering with the agony of their reality. They were only in their early thirties – they had a very long life sentence ahead of them, and I was glad. After seeing what they did to Liam when he showed me his memories, the idea that they were going to rot and die inside a dark cell starving and driven insane by their thoughts made me glad.

I no longer needed to worry about them returning in the future to finish what they started, no longer needed to fear another phone call from Liam screaming in my ear that there were people there to take him away from me. I was still traumatised over it all, it was still engrained into my very soul that I could never leave him on his own again, and I swore to myself that I wouldn’t. But this was one fewer fear taunting me inside my head. It was a weight that had been lifted off my shoulders and five names crossed off the list of people who would ever want to hurt Liam. It was progress. It was _better._

The only people I would have to worry about in the future were Hayden and Valerie, when they got out from their decade of imprisonment. I didn’t have a clue where we’d be by then or what kind of life we’d be living together, but I told myself I would deal with those girls personally if they ever so much as set foot in the same town as Liam again. They would have hell to pay, and that was a promise.

“So why did you need Liam _here_ to tell him that?” I asked with a frown. “You could’ve said all that over the phone.”

“We need him here because there’s _more._ ”

_Oh brilliant._

I looked up to Liam with exhaustion. _Hasn’t he had enough surprises?_

“The Burnetts had very successful careers.” Parrish stepped beside Sheriff Stilinski, hands on his belt. “Their lives were comfortable thanks to their wealth. Now that they’re on life sentences with no relatives, they no longer have need of it. As compensation, the court declared that a fraction of their fortune will go to the families of all the deceased victims, some with be withheld by the government, and a percentage will go to _you._ ”

Our eyes widened and I heard Liam’s heart jump in astonishment.

“A _payout?_ ” Scott confirmed in disbelief.

“They only had me for one month…” Liam shook his head confusedly. “Payouts are only for victims of ten years or more.”

Sheriff Stilinski gave a shrug and stacked his papers.

“The court made the call. It was decided that some of the money will go to you, to aid your future. You’re so young.”

Liam gaped down at me, the blue of his eyes bright and unsure. He held my hands tighter before looking back up to Sheriff Stilinski.

“How much exactly?”

“Well, the Burnetts’ savings totalled just over ten million dollars.”

Our eyes bugged out of our heads.

_Oh my god. I can see where this is going._

“Twenty-five percent will be going to the victims’ families, forty percent to the government… which leaves-”

“Thirty-five percent.” I whispered, completely shocked.

“Yes. Which equates to three million, five hundred thousand dollars.”

_Oh. My. God._

_“What?”_

“Liam!” Scott called out with surprised joy, the amazement written all over his face.

I turned to hold Liam’s wrists, giving them a small shake.

“Li, that’s _incredible._ ”

My beta shook his head at me, mouth open and eyes wide with shock. He couldn’t get his words out for a very long time, only able to blink before he finally said something.

“This has to be a joke…”

Sheriff Stilinski smiled a little and Parrish shook his head fondly.

“It’s not a joke, Liam. It’s real.”

Li shook his head, falling back against the chair with an overwhelmed worry in his brow.

“I need to sit down.”

Scott and I laughed at him, my hands moving up to hold his face.

“You’re already sitting down, baby.” I reminded him adoringly, the smile spreading across my face for him. “Li, that money is _yours._ It could set you up for the next ten years of your life! It can pay for everything: college, a car, the babies… all of it. You won’t have to worry about _anything._ ”

I was completely dumbstruck. There was so much that this money would make easier for Liam. The stress he’d had over the future had literally just been cut in half, money being one massive worry for him that could now just float away. He didn’t need to feel guilty about me going to work or paying his bills anymore, didn’t need to fret over how he was going to manage when the leftover money from his parents’ house ran out.

The poor thing couldn’t talk, his eyes wide on the carpet while he tried to rationalise his thoughts. It took him a moment before his eyes lit up, igniting with a single idea as he looked up to meet my gaze.

He stared before speaking.

“Ours.” He whispered to me, confusing me for a second before his fingers squeezed mine. “The money is _ours._ ”

I watched him. _What?_

“What’s mine is yours, right?” He reminded me, the beautiful features of his face looking upon me hopefully. “We’re doing this together.”

_He is the sweetest creature on this earth, I swear._

I held his hands and shook my head up at him.

“I didn’t go through what you did, Li.” I said to him softly. “I’m not the one pregnant with _twins._ ”

“Supposedly.” Parrish added in, a joke referring to Peter’s comment about my mood in the car on the way south.

I rolled my eyes up at the deputy, looking back to Liam with a soft smile on my face.

“That money is _yours._ For what you went through, what you’re still going through.”

“You went through it, too.” He insisted seriously, his eyes pleading with mine. “You lost me, nearly lost your sanity from the separation anxiety and murdered the pack. You suffered just as much as I did, and you made the incredible effort to save me.”

I opened my mouth to argue but he lifted a hand from mine and pressed a few fingers to my lips.

“You said it last week.” He continued. “You and I are doing this together now. We’re an _us._ So this money is ours. I’ll even join our bank accounts to prove that to you.”

_Join our bank accounts? Woah._

My eyes widened in shock; couples didn’t just join their bank accounts on a regular basis. Not unless they were _married._ Liam wanted to do this to solidify the way he felt about me, to show me that he believed we were doing this together just as much as I did.

“Liam, you…” I stuttered, unable to string a sentence together. “You don’t just _do that_ , you don’t just join bank accounts with someone. It’s _big,_ it’s a huge decision-”

“And I’ve made it.” He interrupted with finality. His eyes burned into mine, so damn blue and serious. “I want to do this. I trust you more than I trust anyone else in the world. We’ve already joined our souls, and we’re making two more together. We can join our bank accounts, too. Please. I want this.”

He was fucking serious. This goddamn boy was so fucking serious. He wanted to literally make himself mine, every literal part of him. He was blinded by love, yet he wasn’t blind at all. He was smart, he knew what this meant. He knew the seriousness of the decision and he fucking made it anyway.

I shook my head up at him in astonishment, a breath leaving my lips.

“You’re the most stubborn shit I’ve ever met.”

The grin spread across his face in the most beautiful sweep of lips and dimples, his eyes smiling with them.

“A stubborn shit who’s so ridiculously in love with a psycho.”

It was so cheesy and he knew it, the grin spreading further across his face while his words elicited a laugh from my chest. He leaned down to nudge his forehead against mine.

“Please.”

Part of him was asking me if I was _okay_ with this, because my permission was needed too after all. And it almost scared me that I was one hundred percent on board with it, undoubtedly and without a single second thought. He’d used my own words against me and he was right. We were doing this together, what was mine was his, and what was his was mine. So this was something we both wanted. There was no other question.

I nodded against him.  
“Okay. We’ll join them.”

The happiness spread over his lips momentarily before he nudged them against mine, offering his lower lip for me to suck on while my hands held his face. The room around us felt a little awkward while they witnessed our affection, but as usual, I didn’t care. I kissed my mate until he was ready to let go, leaving a poke of his nose against mine before he pulled away and looked to Sheriff Stilinski with a nod.

“So what do you need me to do?” He asked openly, the surprise still plain in his face as Noah reached for a clipboard and handed it to Parrish to give to Liam.

“You just need to enter your details into the form and it will be scanned and filed for the court. Just use your current bank details and when you join your accounts your carrier should do the rest.”

Liam nodded and uncapped the pen he was handed, looking down over the sheet before he started filling it out. My eyes popped open with interest when he started writing, a smile of surprise flitting over my face. 

He looked up in question as my heartbeat skipped.  
“What?”

“You’re left-handed.” I smiled down at his hand in shock. “I never noticed.”

He grinned down at me, nodding with a short shrug while he twirled the pen in his fingers.

“Always been the odd one out.”

He was so full of surprises, even now when I thought I knew so much about him. I realised that I didn’t even know his favourite colour or… _oh my god._ I didn’t even know his birthday.

I looked away when Liam started writing again, lowering my eyes to the carpet to hide the sudden drop in my expression. I frowned at myself, disappointed that I loved this boy so much, made him my _mate_ , and I’d never thought to ask him about who he was.

It made me feel somewhat unworthy of him. I claimed to love him so much but never showed an interest in the details about him. I didn’t know him as well as I thought I did and it shocked me, made me feel stupid that I held my relationship with him so high above his own friends.

Liam noticed my shift in mood very quickly, his eyes lifting from the clipboard to roam over my face in concern. I refused to look at him, pretending not to notice that he was looking right at me until he lifted a shoe and kicked me.

I closed my eyes for a moment, surrendering and looking up to meet his eyes. Neither of us spoke but somehow a conversation happened all on its own, because while Scott talked with Parrish and Stilinski about Hayden and Valerie, our eyes evaluated each other silently. Liam wanted to know what was wrong, what I’d seen or thought that changed my mood so drastically. But I didn’t want to say it, not aloud in front of other people. His eyes promised me that we’d talk about it when we were alone, and that was that.

Our conversation had been had without even actually being had.

Maybe I didn’t know as much about him as I thought I did, but I was definitely _closer_ to him than he’d let anyone else. Who else could say that they were _mated_ to him, that they were living with him and making love to him every night and having a baby with him? _Two_ babies, to be precise.

No one. Only me.

I had to remind myself of that. He wouldn’t ask just anyone to join their bank accounts with him, wouldn’t trust anyone else to hold him so close or even to touch the babies after the trauma he’d experienced at the Burnetts’. I was the only one and no amount of information or facts I knew about him would change that. He’d even said it himself – I was the person he trusted the most. Over his friends and even over his alpha.

I had him in a way no one else had ever had him, or would ever have him. That had to mean something.

When he was finished filling out the sheet with his personal information in his intriguing left-handed scrawl, he handed it over to Parrish who immediately turned to scan it into the system.

“It should take around five days maximum for the transfer to be made.” Sheriff Stilinski explained to him. “Just let your bank know when you visit them that you’re expecting a deposit and they will sanction its transfer into the new joint account.”

Noah’s eyes were shining at Liam, almost in a proud, fatherly manner. He was so fond of Liam. It was like he was watching a son grow up and it made my heart warm to see. My beta was surrounded by so much love, had so many people who cared about him. He was the luckiest seventeen year-old in the world, even if he didn’t quite believe it yet.

We stood up and left the Sheriff’s Station together, our legs still a little wobbly with shock at what just happened. Scott handed me my keys and I jumped up behind the wheel of the truck, Liam and the alpha piling in from the other side while I started the engine and listened to their conversation.

“I’m so frigging happy for you.” Scott told Liam proudly, reaching up to ruffle his hair gently. “Three million dollars. That’s amazing.”

“I still don’t really believe it.”

“I don’t blame you. Just maybe keep it on the down low; too many people finding out could turn disastrous.”

I saw Liam nod in my peripheral vision, playing with his hands in his lap.

“I feel like you guys should’ve gotten something too.” He murmured to Scott. “You and the pack. I want you to have some of the money.”

“ _No._ ” Scott said quickly, firmly. “The pack helped because that’s what family does, Liam. We don’t need a payout for loyalty. The reward for us was your life. Your safety and happiness. We all literally only spent like fifty dollars each for fuel and that’s all any of us lost in making the trip.”

Liam wanted to argue, I knew, but Scott kept him quiet.

“Keep all the money. You and Theo deserve it, and you’re going to need it with the babies on the way.”

I felt the flutter of anxiety that flared in Liam’s stomach at the mention of the babies and that they would actually have to _arrive_ at some point. I knew the idea still scared him.

He sat between Scott and I and stared at the dashboard in blank disbelief.

“Three million dollars.” He said aloud, like he was testing the way it sounded.

“Almost four.” Scott commented factually. “ _Basically_ four with the leftover savings from selling your parents’ house.”

“You aren’t making it any easier to believe!”

Scott laughed softly.  
“You have to believe it! It’s yours!”

Liam sighed, slouching back into the seat with a grunt.

“What am I going to do with four million dollars?”

“ _Live_ , without stressing over money.” Scott answered him obviously. “It’s the best opportunity, especially for a seventeen year-old. Billions of people would kill to be you.”

Immediately the words resonated inside my mind just like it did in Liam’s.

I heard his heartbeat falter and I had to resist looking away from the road to check that he was okay. Edith’s voice rang in both of our minds, echoing from Scott’s words like a whisper from the past.

_“You have the ability to bring life into this world – something millions of men and women would kill for.”_

Liam fell quiet. It seemed like a normal place for the conversation to end from Scott’s perspective, but I knew what was coiling inside Liam’s veins: tendrils of memories like a nightmare threatening to haunt him from the inside out if he didn’t do something to fight it off.

I reached across and laid my hand palm up on the seat between us, a subtle offering. He took it, sliding his fingers into mine and squeezing his thank you, because he knew I knew. I helped him fight off the negative emotions and the warmth of our skin together surged through him like an antidote in his veins. Our wolves snarled at the threat together and kept Liam safe once more.

I had to let go of him eventually to shift gears when we arrived home. I pulled the truck back into the driveway and turned off the engine just in time for Scott’s phone to start ringing.

“Sorry guys, gotta take this.”

We nodded to him, excusing him while he threw the door open and jumped down from the truck. He answered when he left the garage, his voice only just audible from the street beyond.

Liam looked to me. He just watched my face, tried to read me. He hadn’t forgotten about that moment inside Sheriff Stilinski’s office and knew it was the reason I’d been so silent on the drive home.

He didn’t push me, though. He waited for me to say something first, waited for me to open up on my own. He knew that was how it worked with me.

I looked to him, tilting my head back against the headrest.

“You okay?” I asked softly.

He seemed slightly thrown-off that I turned the focus onto him, but he knew I’d talk when I was ready. He nodded, looking down to the seat to inch his fingers closer to my thigh.

“Yeah.” He whispered. I lowered my hand to grant his silent wish, letting him twine his fingers with mine once more on the seat. “You?”

Despite the issue nagging at the back of my mind, I said yes anyway. I bit my lip from the inside and kept my eyes on the pattern of the material on the seat.

“Mm.”

I could tell he wanted to ask. I could almost hear the gears turning inside his mind while he tried to find a way to word his question so I wouldn’t bristle and back away, but I didn’t let him. I lifted our hands and pressed a kiss to his knuckles before retrieving the keys from the ignition and jumping down from the truck.

He watched after me for a moment before taking the hand I held out for him, letting me help him down. Scott was at the foot of the stairs of our apartment block when we left the garage, stuffing his phone into his pocket and turning to us.

“That was Stiles.” He sighed with a shake of his head. “Blew up his Dad’s damn microwave. Do you still need me?”

I shook my head, looking down to the clothes I’d worn to work. I smelled like a dishwasher and I was 99% sure I had coffee grounds stuck in the tread of my Seeleys.

“No, my boss let me off for the day. Thank you for staying with Liam, keeping him calm after that phone call.”

Scott nodded genuinely.

“Of course, it’s what family does.” He moved forwards to pull Liam into a hug. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Something inside me threatened to rumble and ignite when Scott held Liam close. My eyes fixed on the way they were connected, the press of _my_ babies into _Scott’s_ stomach, and I suddenly understood. _Oh._

I was feeling anger, but not fury. Not at Scott, or at Liam, but at what they were doing.

It was protectiveness, possessiveness. Liam and those babies and that belly were mine to touch, and they were all touching Scott. My wolf didn’t like it, his jealous growls threatening to come up my throat for real while I tried to suppress them. Scott wasn’t _into_ Liam like that, he was like a brother. He was an alpha. I tried to tell myself that, but the fire in my chest burned hotter, threatening to detonate into a full-blown explosion of roars and claws and teeth and _lava._

Before I could get any worse, the two of them suddenly parted. They could both smell it on me, turning to look at me quickly while they diagnosed the chemosignals my body was sending out on its own. Liam’s face was a mixture of concern and wonder as he and Scott came to the conclusion that, even though I was doing my best to suppress it, I was on the verge of attack. Something inside me had clicked and my wolf was protective as all hell – and I subconsciously thought that perhaps it was a deep-set rivalry I felt with Scott after realising that there were people who knew my mate better than I did, including him.

It was ridiculous and one of the most childish things I’d done since _being_ a child, but I couldn’t make it stop. The glow ignited in my irises and I took a few steps back when my wolf tried his best to surface.

“Theo, it’s okay.” Scott put his hands up, stepping away from Liam to try calming my senses down. “I’m not touching him. I’m sorry, I didn’t know it bothered you.”

I shook my head in shock.  
“Neither did I.”

The alpha understood, because Scott always understood. He was good like that. He moved further away towards his dirtbike on the driveway and nodded.

“It’s okay. I get it, you don’t have control over it.” He smiled softly. “I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?”

I nodded, swallowing the growl that tried to come up instead of my words.

“Yeah. Scott, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, it’s all right.“ He encouraged, pulling the helmet over his head. “It’s a good thing, it’s what mates are meant to do when their wolf is vulnerable.”

Liam moved up beside me while Scott started his bike, looking up to my face before frowning at his alpha.

“Vulnerable. Thanks.”

Scott grinned from behind his helmet, it was clear to see from the way his eyes smiled.

“You know what I mean. See you tomorrow.”

We lifted a hand each to wave while he pulled away from the curb, standing together quietly while the heat slowly filtered from my chest. Soon Liam moved to stand in front of me, blue eyes watching me evenly while my breaths grew longer.

“All good?” He checked carefully, reaching over to tickle my palm. “Not gonna wolf out?”

I rolled my eyes at him, shaking my head and taking a few steps back.

“No.”

He smiled back and followed, walking with me to our apartment. We moved inside and I dropped my keys on the counter next to his, moving through the house to my bedroom and stripping of my shirt and jeans on the way.

Li leaned against the doorjamb, arms folded over his chest while he watched me change. His expression turned sombre, gentle while his eyes roamed over my body from the doorway.

“Theo.”

I turned, tugging on a fresh pair of sweats. Liam moved into my room, unfolding his arms slowly to reach out for me as he approached.

“What’s the matter? Tell me.”

My eyes closed and I sighed through my nose when his hands carded through my hair, his fingers just so relaxing upon my scalp. My hands found his waist and I drew him in.

“I don’t know you.” I surrendered lowly.

I could feel him looking at me, could feel the confusion in his skin against mine.

“What do you mean?”

My eyes opened, the misery bare on my face for him to see.

“When I noticed you were left-handed, it just kind of clicked to me that there are a lot of things I don’t actually know about you.” I explained in a murmur. “I’ve spent all these months telling myself I knew you better than anyone but in truth I don’t even know your damn birthday. Don’t you think that’s something mates should _know_ about each other?”

His eyes were distressed upon mine, the blue trying to shine out to comfort me. His hands fell to my cheeks.

“I don’t know your birthday, either.” He told me with a simple shake of his head. “It’s just how we are, we aren’t the kind of people to sit around playing twenty-one questions with each other. Plus we’ve kinda been busy trying not to die.”

Part of me relented because he was right, but it didn’t stop the awful feeling inside me that told me I still should’ve taken the time to learn.

“I just feel like I could’ve made the effort to think about actually _learning_ about you. I could have just woken you up one morning and asked you what your favourite colour was.”

“We haven’t had _time._ But now we do.” He smiled a little, his fingers holding my cheeks with gentle strokes. “My birthday is July twenty first, and my favourite colour is the colour of your eyes when you’re truly, genuinely happy.”

My heart somersaulted and I couldn’t help the soft smile that fell down upon him. My hands brought him closer until I could feel the twins between us.

July twenty first. I told myself I’d never forget it. Even as a ninety year-old with Alzheimer’s, I would never forget Liam’s birthday.

“My eyes?” I questioned with a lift of my brows. “What colour are they when I’m, ‘truly, genuinely happy?’”

My mate let himself smile back.  
“They’re the most beautiful green. Green with just the gentlest touch of brown around the centre.”

He leaned up to kiss me, his hands leaving my cheeks to make way for his arms to twine around my neck as I held him to me and kissed back. I hugged his body, every nerve inside me settling and relaxing at the feel of him against me from head to toe. The new knowledge about him made me happy, it satisfied that little part of me that had turned sour upon realising that I didn’t know.

Liam stopped our kiss just long enough to get a few words out.

“What about you?”

We shared three more kisses before I pulled away and brushed his hair back.

“Me?” – He nodded insistently, slightly out of breath from our kisses. – “April nineteenth. And my favourite colour is _your_ eyes. Your blue.”

He grinned up at me.  
“You’re not just copying me to be cheesy, are you?”

I shook my head, leaning in to nose at his cheek with a soft laugh.

“No. I mean it. You’re my favourite _everything._ ” I smushed a kiss into his temple before coming up with another question for him. “Tell me something you’re good at.”

“Lacrosse.” He smiled immediately.

“Okay. Something you’re _bad_ at. And you can’t say controlling your anger, because you’ve mastered that.”

He was quiet for a long thirty seconds, struggling to find something to answer with. He thought for a few more seconds before looking up.

“Ice skating.” He said, and my brows lifted in amusement. “Seriously, I’m horrible at it. I don’t have that kind of balance.”

I laughed softly at his answer, leaning down for another kiss. Liam broke off, tapping at my chest.

“What about you? What are you good and bad at?”

I lifted an eyebrow.  
“Come on, mine are obvious.”

Liam shrugged, sending a half-smile.  
“Tell me anyway. It’s admitting to them that counts.”

I took a deep breath, nodding to his request and walking us backwards to the bed. We fell onto the mattress together, settling into the pillows while Liam slung an arm across my chest and laid his head on my shoulder. I held him close.

“I’m good at being an asshole and insulting people,” I answered with a tilt of my head. “And I’m bad at being nice and opening up.”

I felt a kiss press to my jaw.

“Anything else?”

I seriously thought about it, tried to think of something he didn’t know about me. My fingers brushed over his waist.

“I’m bad at math.” I admitted, laughing when Liam lifted his head to gape at me.

“Seriously? I thought you were super smart with math. Didn’t you take calculus last year?”

“It was a huge mistake.” I nodded. “I failed. Math just doesn’t click to me.”

He looked up at me.  
“What does?”

I looked back.  
“Biology. I was good at genetics.”

I watched his lips turn up in a smile and his fingers twirled on my bare chest.

“You could still go back to school, you know.” He said softly. “You completed one semester last year. You could go back after winter break, graduate with me.”

I stared at the ceiling, letting myself think about it for a moment. He was right, I could go back. But did I _want_ to? I’d been working and living an adult life for long enough that I couldn’t picture myself going back to school to graduate. I couldn’t be dealing with the stress of schoolwork while Liam needed me. It took too much of my availability away from him and if something happened where I couldn’t get my schoolwork done, I’d fail anyway and wouldn’t get to graduate.

I shook my head.

“It would be really good and I’d get to spend the days with you, to keep you safe. But I can’t. I need to be here for you and I can’t do that when my head is stuck in ten different assignments. Neither of us would feed ourselves and the house would turn into a storage space for empty pizza boxes and I’m fairly sure that kind of life isn’t ideal for you and the babies. I’m just… I’m happier the way things are now. They’re better this way.”

He nodded on my shoulder, understanding what I was trying to say. He accepted it with a kiss to my skin.

“You’re right. We’d turn into slobs.” We both laughed softly at the mental image and settled into a comfortable silence together.

I laid there and thought about school for a few moments longer before another question for Liam popped into my head. It was another big thing I didn’t know about him.

“Li.”

“Yeah?”

“What’s your middle name? I don’t know your full name.”

He paused for a second before I felt hesitation rise in his skin. The arm I had around his shoulders gave a gentle squeeze of encouragement and I waited.

“It’s… kinda embarrassing.” He trailed off lowly, making me frown.

How could anything about Liam be _embarrassing?_ The kid was perfection in human form.

“ _Try me._ ” I urged him. “It can’t be weirder than Mieczyslaw.”

Liam laughed softly through his nose at my reference to Stiles’s name, his spirits lifting just slightly. He lifted his head and propped his chin on his hand to look at me. He remained quiet for just a moment longer before he said it.

“Eugene.” He mumbled. “My middle name is Eugene.”

I watched the humiliation pass across his face with disbelief.

“What’s so embarrassing about Eugene?”

He seemed shocked that I didn’t immediately start teasing him about it. His eyes lightened a little and his lashes fluttered in surprise.

“Seriously?” He stared at me. “It sounds so ancient and _feminine._ Mason gives me so much shit for it.”

“Doesn’t sound feminine to me.” I shrugged underneath him with a frown, pleased at the relief that eased his lips from their stress. “Whose name was it?”

“My grandfather’s. My biological Dad’s father.”

_Liam Eugene Dunbar._

It was beautiful, just like everything else about him. I reached up his face to finger softly at the dark lashes around those blue eyes.

“Did you ever know your real Dad?”

He shook his head on my chest, the lashes lowering under my fingertips.

“Mum left him when I was two.” He murmured against my chest. “She said he was a schizo. Reckons he’s where I got my IED from.”

My jaw clenched slightly at the misery on his face, at the idea that his mother had _said_ that to him. First she put the label on him, second she refused to try to help him, and third she told him that the blame for his anger problems was because his genes were tainted.

I’d never met the woman, but she wasn’t gaining an overly positive reputation. Just the fact that she’d _left him_ when she found out he was a werewolf… who leaves their fucking children like that? Who calls their child a monster?

I looked over the son in question as he laid his chin upon my chest, and ran my fingers through the gorgeous honey brown hair that fell over his cheeks. He was far from a monster. He was the most beautiful thing in the world.

“Liam.” I whispered. His eyes opened and found mine questioningly, calmly through the sadness. “She’s wrong.”

The blue of his irises was ashamed, his lashes trying to lower once more to hide the anguish from me. I wouldn’t let him, putting a hand to his jaw and pulling him up. I reached for his hands and tugged him, kept tugging until he sat up. He lifted a leg over my thighs and straddled me, his hands letting mine lead them to my face. I held his wrists while his thumbs brushed over my cheekbones, his knees holding onto my ribs closely.

“You’re perfect, Li.” I told him tenderly. “You’re the strongest, most incredible person I’ve ever met. You turned out so beautiful despite the awful way your parents treated you and there are so many people who love you and care about you. What she used to tell you doesn’t matter anymore. She removed herself from the picture and I’d say it’s the biggest favour she’s ever done you. You’re surrounded by love now and you’re living the way you always should’ve. Happy.”

He stared down at me while his eyes shone, tears threatening to fall before he let himself smile just slightly. His thumbs trailed down to my lips.

“I love you.” He whispered.

I reached up to hold his face, pulling him down to me.

“I love you, too.”

Our lips met for a long, expressive kiss. The way we tasted together was a flavour I’d never grow sick of, the softness of his tongue against mine and the suck of his kisses sending me falling into bliss. He caught me before I could fall too far, lifting his head and pushing my hair back.

“What about yours?” He asked softly, definitely cheered up. “Do you have a middle name?”

“Karl.” I nodded underneath him with a few rubs of my hands over his hips. “With a k. Was my Dad’s father, too.”

His eyes were fond as he heard the name. I could basically see _Theo Karl Raeken_ spelt across his pupils while his mind ran over it again and again. He was happy for a moment before suddenly his expression fell again. He then looked down at me with more hesitation and uncertainty.

“What happened to your parents?”

From habit, I looked away at the mention of them. I’d spent my entire life pretending they didn’t matter and that they never existed. I used to think of them and feel absolutely nothing, but now all I felt was guilt and emptiness. Liam had taught me to feel, and now I felt.

“The Dread Doctors murdered them.” I whispered aloud – words I’d never even uttered to myself in the middle of the night. “They were causing too much of a scene after… after _Tara_. They had the police out searching for me and it was too much chaos so the Dread Doctors just… killed them.”

Liam was upset above me, his eyes sad and anguished while he reached a tentative hand down to lay over my heart.

“Theo, I’m so sorry.”

I shook my head softly.

“I didn’t care. I didn’t feel anything except relief. It was like I finally had nothing and no one tying me down, I was free. But I never stopped to realise that they were the best parents any child could’ve asked for. They were so caring, so tender. Even through my childhood, I was diagnosed with sociopathy but they still loved me, they still tried. And I hated them for it. I let them die.”

Liam felt the guilt that expanded under his hand, his fingers pressing down over the beating of my heart. His eyes turned firm.

“You were brainwashed.” He argued with a shake of his head. “They lured you in, you were only a child.”

“I wanted it.”

“But you’re _different._ ” He said loudly, too loudly for the quiet between us. His eyes flared at me with denial and worry, his hands both pressing into the pulse from my chest. “You found your way _out_ , Theo. You changed and you have a _heart._ You do feel bad about it, you do feel sorrow. There’s nothing more you _can_ do.”

“It doesn’t make up for what I did.”

“But you’re trying to make up for it in other ways.” He reached for my hands upon his hips and drew them forwards, sliding them onto the swell of his belly under his sweater. “You’re a beautiful person, Theo, and you’re doing everything you can to make sure I’m safe and happy. You feel love and you _care_ , for me. For them. For a former sociopath, that’s incredible.”

I looked from the perfection of my beta’s face, down to where he held my hands over our babies inside him. My heart twisted and pounded inside my chest, unsure whether to let the misery or the love through. Liam saw the struggle and helped me choose, leaning down to capture my lips in a kiss to fight away the sadness and regret from my soul. I held him close, letting the love explode inside me for him and our babies, proving him right. I loved them so fucking much and they were the only three people in the world I truly cared about, the only people I’d do absolutely anything for.

I had let my own parents die, let my sister die and tried to kill hundreds of people around me - all without feeling a single thing. But Liam brought me out of it. He taught me how to love just by existing and now we were mated, living together, had just decided to join our bank accounts and had two _babies_ on the way. He was right, it was incredible.

I rolled us over as carefully as I could, easing Liam down onto his back and letting my hips take their place between his thighs. He looked up at me, holding onto my face and panting from our kisses. The way his eyes shone up at me with so much trust and fondness made me feel so grateful and lucky, so _home._

“Thank you.” I whispered over his lips, dropping a kiss to them and nosing against him affectionately. “For changing me. _Thank you._ ”

He curled around me and pulled me down for a hug, a hand holding my head to his chest. I closed my eyes and listened to the pure beating of his heart, letting myself feel the comfort and happiness that he brought me. We stayed quiet together for a long while, our eyes shut and our bodies resting against the other while we listened to the sounds of the town from outside.

It felt like half an hour had passed before Liam’s voice rumbled out from underneath me.

“Four million dollars.” He moaned sleepily. I could feel him shaking his head. “What am I supposed to feel about this?”

I laughed softly and lifted my head, reaching up to kiss him once.

“You should feel relieved. Extremely lucky.”

He reached up to my face, touching me while he mulled over his thoughts. He was absent and thoughtful for a long while, his fingers just swaying over my skin before I nudged at him.

“What are you thinking about?”

He shrugged softly.

“The future. All the things I still have to get through. School, graduating, getting my driver's license… the babies. There are so many things we need to do and it feels like there’s no time.”

“There’s plenty of time, Li.” I reassured him. “It just feels overwhelming because it’s all hitting you at once. Don’t stress, okay? We’ll get through it all together, one thing at a time. What are the first few that come to mind when you think about it?”

His answer was almost immediate.  
“The bank and meeting with Ms. Martin.”

I nodded, shifting up off him with a kiss to his forehead.

“All right then. How about we go see the bank after you have something to eat? I’ll make you some fruit and you can organise to meet with Ms. Martin while I do that, yeah?”

He smiled up at me softly, taking the hands I offered out to help him sit up against the pillows.

“I love you.”

I grinned down at him, smoothing a hand over his belly before standing up.

“Give the school a call. You have a fruit bowl coming in ten minutes.”

  
***

  
Liam’s POV

  
After my fruit bowl, we had a meeting organised with Ms. Martin at the school tomorrow for eleven a.m. It was one thing crossed off the list in my mind, and when Theo drove us to the bank to see someone about joining our accounts, we crossed off another.

It was a strange but euphoric feeling, signing the documents together before receiving a printout of our new account details. Our new cards would come in the mail and they would have both of our names on them like the printout did: _T K Raeken & L E Dunbar_.

Something beautiful fluttered through me just to see our names together like that. It was like they just matched, like they belonged together.

So it was official. Our accounts were joined and our savings were combined.

Theo gave the new information to his boss and made sure all his future paychecks would go straight into our new account. It made us feel like a married couple, but it was the happiest married-couple feeling ever. It felt like one secure step in the right direction. Like one extra way I could be closer to Theo.

On Tuesday we woke up naked and tangled together, exchanging sleepy smiles before getting up to make breakfast in our underwear with each other’s hoodies draped over our shoulders. We did that sickeningly cute domestic thing where Theo hugged me from behind while we cooked, and we enjoyed every sappy minute of it.

The babies were hungry, too. I could actually eat every mouthful of my breakfast without wanting to puke it up for once. The weight of fullness in my stomach was something I hadn’t felt since the last time I had pizza with Theo and the pack, that night we went to the movies and I told Theo I loved him.

Actually being able to enjoy and stomach food was a pleasant rarity. We washed up and dressed ourselves properly before locking up and making our way to the school for our meeting with Ms. Martin. To say I wasn’t dreading it would be a lie, but having Theo there with me made it so much more manageable. I tried to stay positive, reaching across to hold his hand when I felt my thoughts slipping into stress and negativity.

It was just at the end of recess when we pulled up in front of the school. Mason, Corey and Malia were at the front doors waiting for us when we walked up, their faces bright and excited to see me for the first time since we got home from Montana. Students milled in the hallways when we moved inside, almost every single one of them turning to watch as Theo and I slipped inside the doors to meet my friends. I’d worn one of Theo’s pullover hoodies with the pocket over the front so my belly could be passed off as extra room inside the jumper, but some people stared over my body anyway. They were looking for any sign that I was sick or traumatised after being kidnapped and taken an entire three states north.

The hand that squeezed mine told me to ignore them because all they could do was stare. No one could hurt me and no one knew I was pregnant except for us and the three friends who were pulling me in for hugs and patting my shoulders.

“It’s so good to see you, Liam.” Mason smiled, happiness radiating straight from his skin. “How are you feeling, all things considered?”

“Fairly good.” I glanced up to send a soft smile to Theo beside me. “Could actually stomach my breakfast this morning.”

My friends’ eyes couldn’t help but direct down to the babies behind my hoodie for a moment, upbeat smiles spreading over their faces. They seemed eager to hear about the babies, _excited_ about the entire situation. It made me feel a little better.

“So the blueberries are growing well, I assume?” Malia teased, resisting a cackle when my expression hardened and I glared at Mason.

“You _told_ them?”

My best friend laughed while the bell for third period rang. Theo and I followed them slowly through the hall to their lockers.

“How could I not? It’s like, the best name I’ve come up with since my pet rock in primary school.”

“Because the pet rock was a _rock_ and couldn’t object to having a name like Angus.” I muttered, earning an offended gape from Mason. “But. The _blueberries_ are fine. More than fine.”

The happiness on my friends’ faces at the news was bright and relieved.

“Something actually happened yesterday.” I said slowly, stepping closer to keep our conversation private. “We got a huge fucking shock.”

Mason’s eyes widened and he pointed down to my belly.

“ _Is there three?!”_

I smacked his finger away and glared at him to shut up, all of us glancing around to make sure no one heard his outburst.

“No,” I murmured into our huddle. “There’s only two. This is something non-baby related. Sheriff Stilinski called me into the station yesterday afternoon.”

“Oh, shit.” Corey’s face dropped with the others. “What happened?”

“Everyone’s in jail.” Theo advised them with a low tone of pleasure. “Hayden and her sister got ten years, Monroe got fifty and the Burnetts almost got the death sentence. They’re serving life without parole.”

“Fuuuck.” Mason whistled. "That's intense." 

“And the court made a decision." I continued Theo's explanation. "The Burnetts had money, like millions. A percentage of that is going to me.”

Three pairs of eyes widened, bugging out in disbelief before one of them had to slap a hand over their mouths to prevent a noise from leaving.

“You’re fucking kidding, _how much?”_  

I glanced up to Theo, waiting for him to give me a subtle nod. _You can tell them, it’s okay._

“Almost four million.”

Mason fell back against his locker, the other two exhaling in shock.

“ _What?_ ”  
“Four million dollars?”  
“Dude, that’s… it’s _yours?_ ”

I nodded.  
“I still don’t really believe it. I’m in shock.”

“Liam, that’s incredible.” Malia nodded gladly, her eyes alight with the surprise. “You can do so much for yourselves with that kind of money.”

“You can buy a mansion-!”

“Hewitt, Bryant and Tate.” A teacher’s voice called out down the hallway, interrupting our conversation instantly. “You have classes to attend. Who are these people?”

“None of your concern.” Theo deadpanned him, lifting a brow and putting a shoulder in front of me. “We’re meeting with the principal.”

The teacher narrowed his eyes at Theo’s attitude and motioned for Mason, Corey and Malia to move off to class.

“You’d better not keep her waiting, then.”

My friends looked back towards us longingly, waving goodbye and telling me we would talk soon before disappearing around the corner to their classes, the cranky middle-aged teacher following in their wake.

I glanced up to Theo before taking his hand and leading him through the halls towards Ms. Martin’s office.

“You could’ve been a little less rude.”

He shrugged.  
“Could’ve, should’ve, but I wasn’t. He’ll live.”

We passed by a few stragglers on our way through the school, several of them turning to stare while Theo and I walked past. Theo made to glare at as many kids as possible, his hand in mine tightening and his entire body fuming with protectiveness. He was being ridiculous but I didn’t complain. I needed the reassurance right now more than ever at the anticipation of facing the conversation I had to have with my school principal.

The waiting room was empty when we entered, thank god. No students lingering to sit and stare at me. The receptionist behind the admin desk looked up at us, taking one glance between Theo and I before knowing who we were.

“She won’t be a moment.” The elderly woman nodded with a few clicks of her computer mouse. “Make yourselves at home and she will call you in when she’s ready.”

We did as she directed, sitting close together on a lounge and waiting while the office ticked slowly and quietly around us. The heater was just that little bit too warm for my skin and the smell of the receptionist’s coffee made me feel nauseous, but a quick brush of Theo’s thumb over my knuckles made me feel a hundred times better.

I leaned into him, lowered my head onto his shoulder while we waited. He was quiet beside me and we didn’t talk, but that was because we didn’t need to. He knew exactly what I was thinking and feeling and knew what I was afraid of. He was right there with me and would support me when I needed him. I knew it.

I let his closeness relax me for the next five minutes until Lydia’s mother stepped out of her office in a sharp red tailored suit with a pair of black rimmed glasses on her nose. She motioned towards her open doorway.

“Liam? Come on in.”

Theo and I stood and I let his hand guide me forwards. His presence confused Ms. Martin slightly but she kept her professionalism, waiting until we had entered before closing the door behind us and rounding her desk.

“Make yourselves comfortable. Would you like anything to drink: tea, water?”

I shook my head, anxiety starting to spread through me when I was forced to let go of Theo’s hand to take a seat two feet apart from him. My heartrate rose almost instantly as the words I knew I’d have to tell her started swirling in my mind.

_Shit._

“Well, how are you? Are you okay?” She asked, looking over me with sharp concern before gesturing to Theo. “Would you care to introduce me to this young man?”

When I could do nothing but stare wordlessly, Theo saved me.

“Theo Raeken.” He provided, his eyes worried on me. Ms. Martin stiffened upon learning his name, obviously having heard of him before. “I’m Liam’s mate.”

“Mate?” She was slightly puzzled, looking between us as she tried to assess the situation. “In what context?”

“In a supernatural context.” He laid it out for her, straight to the point and very direct. I watched her face, knowing Ms. Martin was never one to involve herself in supernatural affairs. “I’m sure you’re aware of the definition mating holds in werewolf terminology.”

Her eyes flickered to me, staring into me for confirmation before she let herself believe it.

“Last I heard you were trying to split up Scott McCall’s pack. Now you’ve mated one of them?”

Theo held her eyes, not letting them waver once.

“People change. Things happen.”

Natalie nodded in curt acceptance before bracing her hands on her desk and turning to me.

“Well, would you care to explain where you’ve been this past month? You’ve accrued an entire thirty-three missed days. I tried calling your parents about the issue as no students had seen you since you threw up on the lacrosse field in early November, but they hung up on me when I questioned them.”

_She called my parents?_

I looked to Theo again, my eyes uncertain and almost fearful without him. It was two mere feet in distance, but it felt like a mile. I needed him close.

Ms. Martin watched me while I looked to him in silence, my heart pounding faster in panic until he couldn’t stand to see the worry in my face any longer. He shifted his chair across the carpet, perplexing Natalie while he drew closer and reached for my hand. My eyes closed for a moment in gratitude when the relief started flooding through me, the contact with Theo making it all so much easier.

My throat loosened and the words started coming.

“My parents left eight months ago. They found out with the rest of the town that I was a werewolf, so they called me a monster, packed up and left me behind with an empty house. Theo is my family now.”

I looked up to him, our fingers confident together and stroking over one another between us.

“Who have you told about this?” My principal asked, her expression sharp with concern.

“Only my friends.” I answered. I stopped her before she opened her mouth to speak again. “I don’t need to see anyone for counselling. I’m dealing with it just fine.”

She blinked for a moment before nodding.  
“And why have you missed the past thirty-three days of your senior year?”

I swallowed. _Here it goes._

“I was abducted by a pair of hunters, anatomists named Edith and Mark Burnett from Great Falls, Montana.”

“ _Abducted?”_

“As in stole him from our house while I was working and wasn’t there to protect him.” Theo cleared it up unhappily.

Natalie looked over me, her eyes starting to narrow worriedly.

“These hunters took you north? For what?”

My eyes closed and I lowered my head. _I can’t say it._

Theo squeezed my hand, encouraging me. This was my principal, she had to know. She was the one person who needed to understand.

“Liam?”

I shook my head.  
“You’re not going to believe me.”

“I will try my best to keep an open mind. What did these people take you for?”

I was a hair’s breadth away from hyperventilating.

“They wanted me for my abilities as the beta of a true alpha.” I murmured into my own lap. “To breed me using the womb I was gifted upon surviving Scott’s bite. They were infertile humans obsessed with supernaturals.”

The office was quiet for what felt like years, Ms. Martin staring into me and trying to make herself believe that what I had said wasn’t complete psychotic nonsense.

“Are you trying to say you can bear children?”

Theo’s hand flattened over my back when the deep breath shuddered from my lungs, the air trying so hard to get inside. He looked up to Ms. Martin and spoke for me.

“He _is_ bearing children. Mine. It’s the only reason the Burnetts didn’t pump him full of DNA when they had him.”

Immediately I felt Natalie’s eyes on me. I felt her disbelief.

“If this is some kind of story to avoid facing the consequences for disappearing-”

“Why would he _lie_ about something like that?” Theo asked sharply, his anger radiating through the room. “ _Look_ at him, do you honestly think he looks like he’s lying?”

“Saying a seventeen year-old boy has been kidnapped by anatomists and has the ability to fall pregnant is a very difficult situation to believe, Mr. Raeken, I’m sure you can understand.”

“If you need proof, contact the Sheriff’s Station. Stilinski spoke for him in the Supreme Court himself, he wrote the damn report. It’s _true._ ”

Ms. Martin stood from her chair and started to pace, a hand up at her lips while she tried to process the situation professionally.

“It’s impossible. Males cannot reproduce, it just doesn’t _happen.”_

Theo reached into the pocket of his jeans, withdrawing a folded piece of paper and handing it over the desk to her.

“Look.”

She opened it carefully, her eyes roaming over the image before her. I knew she knew what she was seeing; she was a mother.

“It’s the ultrasound the Burnetts did on Liam three weeks ago.”

The woman shook her head at the image.  
“This could be anyone’s ultrasound, who knows where you could’ve gotten it from.”

“Are you _serious?”_ Theo was exasperated at this woman’s denial. How could someone so familiar with the supernatural world fail to see that this was real?

Before they could argue any longer, I stood from my seat. Theo’s hands lost mine and he made to move to stop me from leaving before he realised I wasn’t trying to.

I lifted the hoodie up my torso and bared the swollen expanse of the babies inside my lower belly, just barely contained behind the waistband of my jeans. The stressed tears fell down my cheeks and I kept my head down while Natalie’s eyes roamed widely over my skin. My lungs shuddered and I felt myself stressing, and I wanted it to stop. I wanted to stop torturing myself with all the fear, because this woman wasn’t going to hurt me. But I had to remind myself that I was upset because she hadn’t believed me. I was hormonal and stressed, desperate for her to believe me, to _help_ me.

For a long moment, she just stared.

Her eyes looked back and forth over my skin from behind her desk, looking for any sign that it wasn’t real. But she stepped closer, leaning over to watch while my belly expanded and fell naturally with every breath. She took in the way it curved, the smoothness of my skin as it swelled around the babies. She knew what pregnancy looked like, and I knew when she admitted to herself that she was seeing it.

Her eyes softened and her mouth fell open, her hands reaching up to pry the jumper from my hands to lower it back down over my womb. She guided me by my shoulders, urging me to sit back down in my chair gently.

Theo’s hands reached for me immediately and I took them, grasping onto him and letting him wipe the tears from my cheeks while the stress coursed through me. His body was aching to come closer and comfort mine but his hands were all either of us had. At least for now, while we were in this meeting.

Ms. Martin leaned back against her desk in front of me, handing back the ultrasound picture to Theo before crossing her arms and taking a deep breath.

“You’re having twins.” She stated, to confirm. Theo and I nodded. “And they belong to the both of you?”

We nodded again.

She took a moment to process it, that two guys were having biological children together.

“And you have no parents to help you through this.” She murmured, seemingly to herself with a pitiful shake of her head. “Where are you living? At least tell me you have someplace to sleep.”

“We’re in an apartment together.” Theo explained, his fingers smoothing over mine. “I’ve been working while he went to school. At least before the Burnetts took him.”

“So you’re supporting him financially?”

We exchanged looks before my mate answered for me.

“I was. He still had money leftover from selling his parents’ house but yesterday we actually found out he’s receiving a payout from the Supreme Court. A very large sum.”

“We’re living very comfortably.” I added with a nod, seeing the relief pass through Ms. Martin’s face. “We’re fine, really.”

“Are you sure _you’re_ fine?” She gave me a pointed look, bracing her hands on the desk behind her. “I can’t even imagine what you must be going through, your mindset must be…”

She trailed off to avoid offending me, but Theo and I both knew what she wanted to say. _Traumatised, stressed, unstable._

“I’m dealing with it.” I murmured softly. “I’ve got Theo.”

“Well, do you know what you’re going to do? With the children?”

Theo and I both automatically fell defensive at what she was implying.

“You mean are we going to get _rid of them_.” Theo glared accusingly.

Ms. Martin put her hands out to placate his rising temper, looking to me.

“You’re young. You’ve just been through a war and now you’re recovering from being kidnapped. I can’t imagine you’re mentally capable of processing a pregnancy like this, especially considering you’re still in school. You might want this, but the question remains as to whether or not you can _handle_ it. Having a child is difficult, draining. It’s very hard work, and you’re having _two._ ”

I shook my head, just as obstinate about the issue as Theo.

“We’re _keeping_ them.” I said firmly, clearly. “I’m fine and I can do this.”

“You can’t expect it to be _easy_ , Liam. It’s going to be hard on the both of you, it’s something that will change your lives. You’re both so young, you haven’t lived-”

“ _We can do this._ ” I repeated loudly, shutting her up before I snapped completely at her words. Theo felt the same if the way he squeezed my hand was any indication. “We know the risks and we _know_ what’s going to change. You might not be able to see it, but Theo and I are strong together. Our relationship is powerful and I know we can handle this. We _want_ this. We’re keeping the babies and there isn’t anything you can do or say that will change our minds.”

Natalie looked between the two of us, observing the determined glare of both our eyes before she understood that we were serious, that we really weren’t going to budge. The breath she’d been holding rushed out and her shoulders almost slouched if it weren’t for her professionalism. She closed her eyes for a moment before nodding, laying her hands in her lap and opening her expression to us.

“Okay. You’re going to do this.” She acknowledged our decision finally, accepted it. Her eyes moved down to my jumper again briefly. “I assume you have at least another five months up your sleeve. It will be cutting it close and I can tell you now that you’re going to be extremely uncomfortable, but if you’re prepared to work hard I think you can manage to graduate before your babies come.”

I felt Theo’s relief and satisfaction rolling off him in waves, his fingers squeezing mine proudly. I nodded to Ms. Martin.

“I am prepared. I can do it.”

She sighed before standing from the edge of her desk and rounding it to take a seat, turning to her computer monitor and clicking at the screen. Theo and I looked to each other while she typed briefly. My mate smiled at me, giving me a soft nod of encouragement. _I’m so proud of you._

My lips lifted at the corners and I nodded back with a squeeze to his hand. _Thank you._

Ms. Martin made a few more clicks before taking a breath and reading the information on her screen.

“Records show you’ve missed six pieces of assessment.” She read aloud to us. “Three written assignments for World History, English Literature and Health, an experimental report for Biology and two exams for Physics and Trigonometry. They’re all fairly lenient tasks considering the short amount of time students had to learn the theory between fall break and Christmas break.”

“I wanted to ask you if I could work on the assignments over winter break.” I proposed softly while she scrolled. “I could come back the week before break to gather all the notes I need while the other students relax, and do the exams first week back after Christmas.”

“The final week of semester is next week,” She mused to herself, clicking a few more times to bring up a calendar. “Monday the eighteenth. I don’t see why that shouldn’t be possible, it will give you three weeks to work with and you won’t be cooped up in a crowded classroom with distractions. It sounds like the most pleasant way to reintroduce you to the workload after going through what you have.”

Theo’s fingers tickled mine in triumph at her acceptance of our plan. I tickled back, fighting a soft smile while Ms. Martin typed. He decided to push our luck, shifting in his seat before speaking.

“Also,” He began slowly, trying to assess his chances of success. “I’d like to be able to attend Liam’s classes with him.”

I moved to elbow him in the ribs warningly but he shrugged me off, holding my offending limbs at bay while Ms. Martin looked up in concern.

“You know what teenagers are like, they already stare at him all day every day.” He continued before she could shoot his proposal down. “Once he can’t hide his stomach any longer, they’re all going to notice. I don’t doubt some of them will try to make a move on him and I need to be there to protect him.”

A stressed sigh left Natalie’s lips before she leaned upon her elbows on the desk.

“I can understand your instincts to protect Liam, as his mate.” The denial began sympathetically. “But as a non-student and a person who is not his parent or legal guardian, I cannot allow you to do that. There are strict laws and policies the school must adhere to, even concerning visitors who sign in at administration.”

“These kids are going to rip him to _shreds._ ” Theo argued fiercely with a shake of his head. “You know they will. I need to be there to keep him safe from them, to keep our _babies_ safe.”

“In your terms, keeping them safe means _fighting_. Violence in our school is not tolerated and especially being a visitor, you would lose your privileges immediately even if I _could_ somehow grant them to you.”

Theo sat back against his chair, his jaw working while his eyes focused on an inanimate object to keep his frustration under control.

“I’m sorry, Theo.” Ms. Martin apologised sincerely. “I would let you if I could trust that you wouldn’t threaten the safety of our students, but it’s not up to me. It’s the law. I assure you that I will do what I can to guarantee Liam’s safety while at school. Every one of his teachers will be made aware of the situation and our school security team will be on alert during recess and between classes.”

He sighed beside me, closing his eyes momentarily before letting himself surrender with a reluctant nod. His arm pressed against mine on the arms of our chairs while his fingers smoothed over my own.

“Can I at least walk him in to his first classes and wait for him at his last?”

It only took Natalie three seconds before she gave him a solemn nod.

“I will allow you to do that, on the condition that you do not harm any students who may attempt to taunt you. Our school has a duty of care to uphold and I cannot allow your presence if you’re going to compromise that.”

Theo took a deep, annoyed breath before rolling his eyes and agreeing.

“Fine. But that won’t stop me from yelling at them.”

Ms. Martin watched him closely, her expression forewarning.

“I would advise that you refrain from that.” She turned back to her computer and clicked a few times before typing a sentence or two into her calendar. “I will reach out to school security, administration and all your subject teachers to explain your situation to them so they are prepared before you return. I’ll have them organise your schoolwork and plan their lessons accordingly so you get the most out of the time you spend with them. They will be available over the winter break for you to email regarding assessment if you need and I will make sure they are all aware that I have agreed to allow Theo into the school at the start and end of the day until further notice.”

Theo and I looked at each other quickly before nodding, a nervous breath of finality leaving my lungs. Just like that, it was done. Organised.

I would be going back to school in five days.

“I think you’re exceptionally strong for wanting to do this, Liam.” Ms. Martin’s eyes were serious upon mine. “It’s clear you have a very thick skin when it comes to your determination.”

Theo smiled softly beside me.  
“He's more like a stubborn little devil.”

I nudged at him, fighting the smile that wanted to spread across my lips. It only showed in one little dimple on my cheek.

“Regardless, considering the way you came into our school…” Ms. Martin almost smiled at me, reminding me of the emotional trainwreck of anger that I’d been when I moved to Beacon Hills High. “You will be leaving it a very different, very accomplished young man. You should be tremendously proud of yourself.”

I let myself smile just a little, my heart doing gentle somersaults at the praise. The relief started to ease into my shoulders as the huge item was crossed off my mental list of things I needed to get through.

_~~Tell the principal I’m pregnant and organise to go back to school.~~ _

“I want you to know that if there is anything you need, or wish to talk about, I am always here during school hours.” Natalie informed me. “My door is always open, you need only let Cheryl at reception know that you wish to see me and she’ll bring you straight through. I will be here to help you in any way I can. Even if you need a mother’s advice during your pregnancy.”

It was a fair shock to hear the offer come from her mouth. Sure I wasn’t overly familiar with Lydia’s mother, nor had I had many conversations with her, but there she was offering to help guide me through such a personal phase of my life. All because my own mother deserted me.

Gratitude swelled in my chest and I nodded softly, a little unsure how to feel.

“Thank you. Really. I’ll come to you if I need anything.”

“Good. The guidance counsellor is also here five days a week if you wish to speak to another male about your thoughts and feelings.”

I bit my lip with a slow shake of my head.  
“I think I’ve had my fair share of guidance counsellors, thanks.”

Theo’s smile lit up the room from beside me while Ms. Martin tilted her head and resisted one of her own.

“I expect you have, although I am confident Mr. Goulding is neither a hunter nor a supernatural antagonist. He’s a safe choice.”

“Thanks, but,” I looked to my left with a soft smile. “I’ve got Theo.”

Natalie looked between us, nodding.  
“Yes you have. Take care of each other, and I’ll see you on Monday the eighteenth.”

We made to stand up, Theo shifting his seat back to its original position before taking my hand and pulling me close.

“Thank you, Miss.” I said before we left. “For understanding.”

She led us to the door and held it open, her eyes bright while she watched us leave.

“You’re still a human, Liam. You deserve to be treated like one.”

I felt the appreciation Theo had for her words, the warmth of his skin sending off a soft fondness. He glanced at her thankfully before pulling me away, taking us in the direction of the front of the school. The last I saw of Ms. Martin was the brown of her hair and the red of her suit jacket while she stood watching after us from her doorway. I took one more glance at her before turning and walking with Theo through the school.

He slung an arm around my shoulders and pulled me into his side, the both of us falling into step together while he turned his head and pressed a kiss to my hair.

“So proud of you.” He murmured into me. “You’re strong, Li.”

I held his waist with one arm, leaning my head into his shoulder while we walked.

“Couldn’t have done it without you there. You are what makes me strong.”

He let out a deep breath into my hair, his eyes gazing over the top of my head as we emerged out into the carpark and headed towards the truck.

“Shame she couldn’t let me come to school with you.”

I shrugged, watching my feet while I kicked up loose stones on the asphalt.

“At least she’s letting you walk me in and out. I just have to watch my back, that’s all.”

“Shouldn’t have to.” He opened the door for me, waiting for me to climb up before jumping in after me. “I’m not sure how I’m going to deal with it, being at work while you’re walking through halls full of kids who want to ruin your life.”

“They don’t want to ruin my _life,_ ” I deliberated, not entirely believing my own argument. “They just… take pleasure from making people miserable. They can’t handle being normal while there are more special people like werewolves and town heroes.” I looked down to my belly and lifted an eyebrow. “And now pregnant boys.”

“Hey.”

A hand reached down past my face and Theo’s fingers brought my chin up, turning my head so he could find my eyes. His thumb smoothed over my lower lip.

“Don’t look at yourself like that.” He murmured insistently, watching me. “None of those kids know you, they don’t know what you’ve been through. They’re going to look at you and see a phenomenon, a target to prey on. But you and me, and the pack? We all _know._ We see someone so damn strong and beautiful, we see a Liam who’s loyal and determined, who survived his childhood and a werewolf bite. We see someone who survived a war and losing his parents and a girlfriend who betrayed him to a psychotic pair of hunters. You survived all of it and the end result is _this. You._ You can’t look at yourself and feel unsure and ashamed, Li. You need to feel so proud because you’re _incredible_.”

I leaned my head back against the seat behind us and sighed, the icy blues of my eyes watching him tiredly.

“I do feel proud,” I said back. “Sort of. It’s just really hard to grasp, okay? I mean, I’ve spent my entire life believing something like this isn’t possible, that it doesn’t exist. It was the same when Scott bit me, I refused to accept that I was going to become a werewolf. Werewolves were folklore, mythical. It took time for me to come to terms with it. Now I have to come to terms with this.”

Theo took a slow breath and nodded, watching me softly with the slightest of frowns over his brow. I reached up to brush my fingers over his wrist.

“It’s not that I don’t want them, I _do._ I just need to get used to them, to all of this. I need you to help me with that.”

He nodded right away, the hazel of his eyes loyal upon mine.

“Always.” He promised with another stroke to my lips. “I just want you to remember that you’re beautiful, to all of us. I hate seeing you doubt yourself.”

I leaned in closer, rolling my head upon the seat to face his.

“I’ll try remember.” I nudged at his nose. “I promise.”

 _Good_ , his eyes said. He leaned in to kiss me gently, the hand that had been on my chin moving up to memorise my face. I cherished the feel of his lips on mine, the perfect way in which we shared our kisses. They were warm and full and just the perfect medicine to cure my troubles. He calmed my heart down and settled the raging emotions inside me, leaving one last peck over my forehead before leaning back to start the truck.

His hand wouldn’t leave my hair until it really truly had to, his fingers trailing through the length of it before he reached down to shift into gear. He took us home, stopping on the way to get me a frozen coke from McDonald’s despite the fact that it was 58 degrees outside. I sipped on it gratefully when we laid down on the sofa together, getting comfortable under my favourite blanket and putting on a movie to make the most of the time we had together before he had to leave again for work tomorrow morning.

The babies were happy pressed up against Theo, going still and relaxing inside me once they were sure he wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. The gentle nausea that constantly poked and whispered at my insides diminished while I rested, my eyes growing heavier with exhaustion the longer we laid there watching the film.

There was so much I had to think about, but all of the issues flew out the door when I was curled up close to my mate like this. He cured me and took on the weight of my problems like he always did, his fingers running through my hair in that same usual soft stroking rhythm until my eyes finally fell shut. I felt his satisfaction, felt the smile on his lips around me when I surrendered to the pull of sleep. I wanted to reach up to smack him but my limbs refused, instead falling heavier onto him as I started to dream.

I still subconsciously felt his arms around me and his body against mine while I saw the same house on a hill in the sunset that I’d been dreaming about for the past few nights. I was peaceful and comfortable while I let my mind run through the images, seeing a couple on their back porch while their two children ran in the golden fields below. I heard the playful barks of their Labrador while it circled them, the children jumping and squealing with flourishes of chestnut hair in the wind. I let myself smile, settling into the dream. I didn't know where it came from, but I liked it. 

It looked like home.


	21. CHAPTER TWENTY

“Liam. _Liii-aaam…”_

My eyes refused to open, a short grunt leaving my nose at the interruption to my sleep.

I vaguely felt a hand in my hair and another over my collarbones but I tried to drift back off, the pull of sleep still too heavy in my limbs for me to even consider wanting to wake. The world was nice and silent for another few sweet seconds, just the fingers upon my scalp slowly sending me back off to dreamland, but those few sweet seconds were all that lasted.

The voice came again, a pressure gently tickling against my chest under the hand upon it.

“I know you can hear me.” The low, husky voice taunted gently. “Stop being stubborn and open your eyes, Li.”

“ _Mmmh.”_ I moaned, frowning when the dream of the sunset house was lost for good. “Why‘re you waking m’ up?”

Theo’s fingers were persistent in my hair, the scent of his skin swirling happily around me in the bedsheets and filling my lungs. Just the smell of him was enough to rouse me, my eyes longing to see the beautiful brightness upon his face as it matched his good mood.

My lashes reluctantly parted, a deep half-yawn sucking into my chest while I blinked and eventually focused on the face above me. I was on my back, a leg splayed out into the centre of the mattress with an arm up above my head in the pillows. Theo was beside me, propped up by his elbows with his body snug against the side of mine. His eyes were still softly laced with sleep, gently swollen and looking down upon me with a fond brownish-green hue.

I couldn’t help but smile at the sight of him. He was so goddamn gorgeous in the mornings.

“Hey.” He gave me a gentle smirk, the hand on my chest reaching up to smooth over my jaw.

“Hey.” I returned softly, stretching a little before lifting my own hand to touch his beauty. “What’s the matter, why’d you wake me?”

The smile grew over his lips, barely contained excitement sparkling in his eyes. He motioned down the bed with his gaze and a brief turn of his head, his brows encouraging me to follow.

“Look.”

At first I looked to my feet in confusion, wondering what the hell he could be motioning for me to look at – only to find that I couldn’t see them. Not without lifting my head.

My eyes widened in confusion as the disbelief coursed through me.

“What the hell.” I breathed, reaching down to yank the bedsheets off my middle. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

The babies had _grown._ Like, _really_ grown.

My belly was a lot bigger than it had been last night when I went to sleep. For the past few weeks it had just been lingering around the full-lower abdomen mark, but now the rise of the swelling had started to come up past my navel. It was coming up to my ribs, gently rounded and super scary, like there was almost more than half a bowling ball in there – and that was just when lying down. _Oh, god._

Theo was clearly excited beside me, the soft astonishment in his expression making my heart want to inflate along with my stupid belly. His hand had stilled in my hair and his eyes were alight while he looked over the newly swollen expanse, his heartbeat audible and quickening in my ears.

He looked back up to me with an expectant expression, those eyes bright and waiting while his smile softened. I shook my head slowly, unsure of exactly how to feel.

“This can’t have just happened overnight.” I denied, my voice faint with disbelief. “It’s _ridiculous._ ”

Theo’s brows rose softly, the amusement rising in his cheeks.

“Ridiculous? It’s _amazing._ They’re growing, Li.”

I stayed silent, staring down at my belly with denial, anxiety. Some part of me wanted to kiss Theo, because just the sight of him so in awe over the concept of his twins growing made my heart cry with love and happiness. But the bigger part of me was scared, nervous. This was happening way too fast and it made me feel sick.

And he knew, because he _always_ knew.

His hands moved up to my face, his fingers caressing over my cheekbones and lips softly. The excitement lessened in his face and made way for supportive concern, those eyes watching down at me with care.

“Talk to me.”

I grit my teeth for a few seconds to stop the tremble of my lip at the threat of tears. _No. I’m not going to cry over this._

Theo’s fingers grew slower, waiting patiently.

“I just…” I tried to find the right words. “They _can’t._ It’s too soon. They shouldn’t be growing this fast.”

He looked down over my belly again, a new concern in his eyes.

“Maybe it’s just you, your body’s strong. They’re happy in there and they’re just growing.”

I shook my head softly, unable to prevent the worried frown that creased over my brow. My fingers clenched in the bedsheets softly. He needed to understand.

“I’m scared, Theo.” I whispered, my eyes on my womb. “I’m not ready.”

He exhaled in sympathy, laying onto the stack of pillows behind me and pulling me in. I let his arm slide under my shoulders, pulling me onto my side to roll against him in a close hug. He held my head to his collarbones, fitting his chin over my forehead.

“It’s okay.” He comforted me gently with rhythmic sways of his fingers upon my shoulder blade. “There’s still plenty of time, they’re not actually that big yet. It’s just scary because it’s new, I know how you feel.”

“What if there’s not?” I worried into his skin. “What if there _isn’t_ much time? They could just keep going and before we know it it’ll be the new year and they’ll be _here._ ’’

“That won’t happen. You know it won’t.”

“But what if it does? We have no idea how this is meant to happen, no one knows anything about trueblood beta pregnancies. What if I only have a few months left?”

Theo held me closer, his hand firmer upon my hair.

“Li, you’re panicking. You need to breathe.”

His words sunk into me, reminding me that yes, I was panicking. I was letting my fears take over and it was warping my sense of rationality, shocking my senses.

“It doesn’t help to stress yourself out, baby. You have to bring yourself back.”

I took a long, deep breath and let it out slowly, closing my eyes and letting my body relax against my mate’s. He was right, it did neither me nor the babies any good to stress over what I couldn’t control. I was overreacting, freaking out because this was new and strange and frightening.

I had to remember that he was right there with me. He was there to support me and I knew he’d stay by my side forever. If I had him, everything would be all right. I’d be okay.

My muscles softened and I let my weight sink into him, the arms he had wrapped around me squeezing gently in praise.

“Good.” He whispered, pressing a kiss to my forehead. “Just let yourself relax, Li. Everything is going to be fine. We’ve got time - and I’m sure if we ask nicely, the babies will wait for you.”

The soft smile touched the edges of my mouth without my permission. He could be such a sap sometimes.

“I doubt that. They probably can’t even hear us.”

“Actually,” He shifted beside me, getting comfortable against the pillows with a factual tilt to his tone. “They can. I was reading up on it during my break the other day-”

“You?” I interrupted in exaggerated disbelief. “ _Reading?_ ”

“I know, right?” He gave a soft scoff, pinching gently at my waist to punish me for my insult to his intelligence. “Couldn’t even believe it myself. But I found this website and apparently after nine weeks their ears are like tiny indents. Sixteen weeks is when they start hearing partial noises.”

I couldn’t help but smile. Theo did _reading_ on the babies. A guy who cared about nothing and no one just a year ago, who hated people and school, made the conscious effort to do leisurely reading on the development of our babies.

I tilted my head up to admire him with a soft shake of my head.

“Can’t believe you actually read up on it.”

He shrugged, clearly fighting the smirk that tempted his lips. His fingers tickled through my hair.

“It’s cool, learning about what’s happening to them while they grow. You’re literally growing human beings, your body is making their brains and their eyes and their bones… even their _fingernails,_ like… it’s fascinating.”

I realised he was right. It was fascinating. Somehow my body had the ability to create every tiny detail that made up a new human being. I was giving _life_ to something – _two_ somethings. It was special.

I pressed a slow kiss to his scent gland and let myself fall dizzy with him when I inhaled from it, my blood heating with the cosiest warmth of love for him and spreading through my veins. The apprehension and anxiety from before started to fade the longer I thought about it, the warmth of Theo’s body around me encouraging slight excitement to start bubbling up. It slowly started to dawn on me: we were having _babies._

He felt the positive change in my skin, tilting his head to smile down at me while I hugged myself to him. He was proud of me, I could tell.

His fingers stroked through my hair tenderly.  
“Wanna hear more?”

I nodded, closing my eyes.  
“Please.”

A kiss fell upon my forehead and one of his arms left me to reach for his phone. I listened closely while his thumb tapped upon the screen, his other arm holding me snug against him while he brought up the website he’d been looking at.

“Okay.” He started, getting comfortable. “So sixteen weeks is when they start to pick up limited sounds, like when your stomach makes noises or the sound of your lungs when you’re breathing.” He was quiet for a few seconds while he scrolled. “Apparently at twenty-four weeks they can actually turn their heads in response when they hear certain things. Your voice will be the clearest to them, they’ll learn it first. Your voice reverberates through your bones and into the womb, and it says here that their heartrates actually pick up when they hear you.”

My heart made a gentle flutter, stupid tears starting to sting behind my eyelids. I couldn’t deny that it was something so personal and sweet – our babies would be able to listen to my voice and learn it. They could bond with me before they even left my body, create such a deep connection to me just by growing inside me. They would respond to me and their tiny hearts would get excited just to hear my voice. It was so fucking cute, so beautiful.

Theo was quiet while I felt it all, his fingers rubbing through my hair softly as though he were encouraging me to let myself experience the fondness. I remembered his words once more: _you don’t have to fear falling in love with them._

“What about you?” I whispered against his neck, taking a slow, relaxed breath. “Can’t they hear you?”

“I think so,” He mused softly, distracted while his fingers slid upon the screen. I listened to it, waiting. “It says they learn other voices, too. Deeper ones are easier for them to pick up, so I guess they’ll be able to hear us talking every day. Maybe I’ll have to start having conversations with them, introduce myself.”

I let myself laugh, the smile spreading across my face just to visualise Theo talking to a belly. It was too domestic, too _corny._ Totally not something he would ever be caught dead doing.

But then again, maybe I was wrong. I’d originally thought that never in a million years would he want to have these babies. I thought he would leave because _father_ was definitely not a word anyone would ever pick to describe him. But he surprised me. He always surprised me. He _stayed_ and he was helping me to learn to accept this, helping me to _love_ our babies because he did, too. He loved them so much, I could feel it.

He wanted them and he was doing what he could to learn about them, and it only made him seem that much stronger to me.

He’d let his parents die. He’d let his whole family die, yet he’d healed himself enough to do this with me. He had never imagined himself having anyone, let alone being worthy enough to become a father, but he moved past all the issues that haunted him and he fought to be _different._ He tried so hard to change, to be better, and now he was.

He was perfect, so fucking perfect. And he was mine.

I lifted my head from under his chin and sat up just enough to join our foreheads, the smile unstoppable on my face. He smiled back, those hazel eyes so goddamn pure.

“You have no goddamn idea how much I love you.” I told him softly, nuzzling against him affectionately. I could feel our wolves cuddling up together inside us. “You’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met.”

He gave a gentle laugh through his nose.  
“That’s not what you thought when you met me.”

“I thought you were _hot,_ that counts _.”_ I admitted with a soft laugh back. “But it’s like you said: things happen, people change.”

He nodded against my lips, chasing me for a kiss.

“They do.”

A hand curled around the back of my neck and he pushed forward, succeeding in catching my lower lip between his. He sucked on it gratefully, his hands quickly finding my hips and tugging me closer until I shifted under the covers and sat upon him with a thigh on either side of his waist.

He slid down from the pillows, lowering to lie flat beneath me while his knees came up to cradle my seat upon him. His hands roamed my bare skin and his hips bucked up gently into me, asking politely. I ground down against him while he sucked and bit on my lip, turning it red and letting it swell between his teeth.

“Yes.” I told him in response to the silent question his hips were asking, almost shivering when I felt his thickness sliding against my hole. _Oh please. Please, please, please._

His breaths were hot against me, his eyes blown-out and heavy-lidded with lust when he pulled back to look at me. His brows were double checking, asking to confirm.

“Only if you want to, baby.” He breathed underneath me. “Not if you’re sore.”

“I’m good, it’s okay.” I nodded against his nose, dipping back down for another kiss. “I want to.”

His hands caressed my hips, kneading them tenderly before one slid down over my back and followed my spine right to my tailbone. His fingers teased me and tickled against my hole gently before reaching down to grasp the length of his cock. I felt as he pumped it a few times to fatten it up, the eager huffs leaving his chest while he anticipated sinking into me. I was almost trembling above him, my body so ready to feel him. I needed him close, needed to feel full with him.

He just made to push up into me when the front door echoed through the house, clicking shut after someone’s entrance. Theo and I jolted, both lifting our heads in fright to look towards the bedroom doorway even though the visitor was only still in the kitchen.

“Morning, guys!” Scott’s voice called out fondly through the house. His keys could be heard dropping onto the kitchen counter. “Wow, don’t tell me you’re still asleep.”

“Fuck.” I hissed, sharing a disappointed pout with Theo before talking to the doorway. “Scott, _we’re naked.”_

The alpha’s sneakers squeaked on the floorboards as he halted to an abrupt stop. Theo’s laugh blew over my jawline as he reached up to nose into my throat just below my jaw.

“Thanks for the warning.” Scott called out gratefully. “I’ll just be out here.”

Theo’s breath left him in one rush of frustration, his hands gentle upon my hips when I turned back to him. His expression was one of total-letdown.

“Forgot he was coming.” He sighed, looking down over my nakedness upon him before reaching down to touch the babies with tender fingertips. I watched while he made soft strokes over my skin. “I’m probably going to be late to work.”

“Don’t let me keep you.” I murmured, smiling when he met my eyes longingly.

“I _want_ you to keep me. Wanna stay with you. With _them._ ”

I nodded, my lip worrying while I sighed.  
“I want you to stay, too. But the café needs you.”

Theo made a long, strangled groan, wrapping his arms around me and rolling us around on the mattress until he was on his knees above me. My hair fanned across the pillows and I beamed underneath him, so fond of the green eyes and beautiful face hovering above.

He stared down at me for a long moment, a soft smile moving across his lips before he leaned down to kiss me gentle and slow.

“I’ll miss you.” He murmured, thumbing at my cheek.

I kissed his palm, my arms slung lazily above my head.

“I’ll miss you, too.”

He heaved a long sigh before forcing himself to part with me, tearing himself away and climbing out of the sheets. He tucked the duvet back up over the twins before turning to disappear into his bathroom.

I closed my eyes and listened, splayed out under his bedsheets and surrounded by his smell while he took a shower and brushed his teeth. I’d never really laid there and let myself feel what it was like to stay in someone’s bed while they got up and left for work – to stay behind and wait for them to come home to me. I’d never let myself relish in being someone else’s _someone_ , especially in having a boyfriend. Up until Theo, I’d thought I was straight. Girls had been _it_ and the term bisexual never even occurred to me, never related to me.

I almost laughed at myself spitefully. _Look at me now._

Naked in Theo Raeken’s bed, in the house he and I shared as _mates_ with a belly full of his babies. My parents would suffer aneurysms if they knew.

I let myself dwell in the humble, comfortable thoughts and for a moment I almost felt carefree. I almost felt normal, like a regular in-love teenager dozing in their boyfriend’s bed while he got ready to start his day. I forgot about the babies inside me and forgot about Scott down the hallway. I even forgot that I was a werewolf with IED.

I felt human.

But then my eyes slid back open, Theo’s footsteps drawing me out of the daydream. I turned my head on the pillow to watch him sleepily, my eyes roaming leisurely over the gorgeous body I had the pleasure of calling mine.

His skin was flawless, gold-toned and swelling over the muscles in his back as he pulled open drawers in his dresser to find clothes for the day. His belly and chest I could see just from memory, my hands having roamed over the planes of his skin more times than I could count. His abs were taut and tight, his pecs just meaty enough to clench in your fingers while you rode him, and his hips were curved so beautifully in a deep V-line.

His ass was one of my favourite parts of him. His glutes were strong and firm, denting and making dimples in his cheeks when he shifted his weight from one leg to the other. And then there were those thighs. Thick and powerful and – _god, I’m going to make myself dizzy._

He covered those limbs with pieces of clothing, one at a time before me. He still only dressed in black, grey or dark blue – just the same as when I met him. Sometimes there was the occasional splash of red or green, but never yellow or white. He’d always known what looked good on him and he liked to tease the world with his beauty.

It made me smile, because I got to call it mine. All of it.

He turned, the freshly-sprayed scent of his cologne wafting over as he searched the bedside table for his wallet.

“Hey.” I called softly to him, catching his attention immediately. I smiled. “Can I see your license photo?”

His face broke out in an amused mixture: a smile and a frown. He crawled onto the bed beside me and flopped down, leaning upon an elbow and handing his wallet to me willingly.

I leaned against him while I opened it, drawing out his license card. It was like looking at a baby version of him – his features were so soft and innocent, even though I knew he had been far from it. His hair was much shorter and his eyes were darker, his expression blank and almost sinister.

It made me realise how much he’d grown up – how much we both had. We weren’t exactly youthful young teens anymore. We were almost men.

“Had this done when I was sixteen.” He told me, looking upon the picture with indifference. “I remember the Dread Doctors sending me in with a forged birth certificate and a direct order not to fail the test.”

I looked up at him, my heart warming to see the _now_ Theo beside me. The _now_ Theo was gentle and beautiful.

“And did you? Fail the test?”

He smiled softly, still looking upon the picture nostalgically.

“Almost.” He brought a hand up to make an inch between his fingers. “Tried to parallel park and missed the curb by that much.”

I mirrored his smile, trying to imagine this young deadpan Theo taking a driving test without murdering the instructor.

“I wanted to take my test as soon as I turned seventeen.” I sighed, laying my head upon his shoulder when he closed his wallet. “Not that my parents took me out to practice much, but I told myself I’d be free once I got my license. Didn’t exactly turn out.”

Theo laid his head upon mine softly.  
“How about I teach you? Over the winter break, I’ll take you out a few times to practice.”

I lifted a brow, the offer triggering a memory. My chest puffed up when a furious sourness burned through my veins upon remembering something my friends said from last year.

“Like you taught _Malia?_ ”

Theo lifted his head, turning to look at me incredulously when the sentence spat from my mouth. I laid back onto the pillow, hating the sudden fierce jealousy that growled inside me.

“Where did you hear about that?” He asked sceptically, confronted and surprised at my behaviour. “That was ages ago.”

“She told us.” I muttered, watching my fingers while they picked at the stitching upon the duvet over my belly. “Said you tried to make a move on her, holding her hands and shit. Everyone thought you wanted her.”

A laugh of disbelief fell from his lips and he turned onto his stomach to face me. He watched me for a long few seconds, his eyes bright and searching my face.

“Liam. Are you seriously _jealous?”_

I grit my teeth, seething down at my own fingers still.  
“Maybe.”

He laughed again, this time sounding adoring and full of affection. He crawled closer on the mattress, his cologne washing over me when he forced his arms around me and pulled me against him for a hug.

I pouted against his chest.

“Baby, that was like a year ago.” He comforted into my hair. “I can tell you now, I was _not_ into her – you know what she and I are like. We revolt each other.”

“Then why’d you do all that?” I murmured. “Why would you offer to teach her to drive if you didn’t like her?”

“Because I was _told to._ ” He answered softly. “The Dread Doctors wanted me to be their killing machine, and stealing Scott’s alpha power was the way to get that. I was ordered to manipulate Malia into following me, and to use any means necessary. I’ve _never_ been into her, Li. I’ve never been into _anyone_ before you.”

“Yet you still betrayed me.” I said, frowning and regretting the words instantly. _Low blow, Liam._  

I shut my eyes against his chest and took a deep breath.

“Fuck, I’m sorry. I’m just…”

“It’s okay.” He whispered, pressing a kiss to my hair. “You’re upset, you’re hurting.”

“But I shouldn’t be. I’m being stupid.”

“Hey.” He lifted my chin so I could see his eyes. “I should be flattered that you’re jealous. It shows me how much you care, doesn’t it?”

I looked down, nodding ashamedly. His fingers tapped my chin, waiting until my eyes met his again before he gave me a soft smile.

“You’re the only person I’ve ever fallen for.” He lowered his head to nose against me. “The only person I’ve ever said, ‘I love you,’ to. The only person I’ve ever made proper love to. The only person I’ve ever let touch me like you do… you’re my _mate,_ Li. You’re my baby. I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but I think we were meant to be together, you and I. We’re just perfect together.”

He made my heart burst inside my chest. The totally-in-love smile spread across my face and he saw every inch of it. He leaned in to kiss me, our lips joining happily while I let the stupid jealousy float away. He was right, we were perfect together. I was the focus of so many firsts for him, just like he was for so many of mine. We gave ourselves to each other like we’d never done for anyone else. We _mated_ each other – that was for life.

I had absolutely no reason in the world to be jealous of anyone, ever. This Chimera was _mine_ , and I was his.

“And,” He broke off our kiss to add, “There’s the babies, too. Can’t say I’ve had babies with anyone else, either.”

I rolled my eyes.  
“None that you _know_ of.”

He only smiled, shaking his head slowly.

“No one. No one but you.” He pecked my lips one more time before lifting a cheeky eyebrow. “So? You, me. Driving. Christmas holidays?”

I let the exasperated grin spread across my face and rolled my eyes at him once more, pushing on his chest to nudge him away while I rolled onto my back. He followed me, leaning over my chest and nosing at my cheek until I answered.

“ _Fine,_ yes. We’ll go driving.”

“ _Yesss._ ” He triumphed, pressing a total of eight little kisses to my cheek before hoisting himself up energetically. He let a hand smooth over my jaw. “Okay, I really have to go; I’m going to be so late. I’ll see you at two-thirty, yeah?”

I nodded up at him. 

“Yeah.” I agreed, smiling at the beauty of him above me.

His thumb brushed over my skin and he stared for a few gentle seconds.

“I love you, Liam.”

The words he’d only ever told _me._ I smiled even wider, leaning into his touch.

“I love you, Theo.”

We shared one more long, deep kiss before one last one was pressed to my forehead. Theo smoothed a gentle hand over our babies and tore himself away from me once again, our hands reaching out to stay connected until they slipped apart from the distance. He looked over his shoulder at me before he left, a hand on the doorjamb while his eyes lingered upon me in his bed.

 _I love you_ , he mouthed with a soft wink before he disappeared.

He left me grinning, ecstasy spreading through my veins. He made me so goddamn happy.

I rolled over and scooted to his side of the bed, burying my head into his pillow and pulling the sheets up to my nose. I settled on my left side after finding a comfortable position for my knee to support the new size of the babies, shutting my eyes and letting myself drift off to sleep slowly.

 

When I woke again two and a half hours later, I felt stronger. I didn’t feel so tired and sluggish.

I could hear the TV on from out in the lounge room, a strange show on that I couldn’t recognise. I sat up slowly and picked the sleep from my eyes, warm satisfaction rolling through me when I discovered that my skin smelled just like Theo. I inhaled it deeply before stirring, throwing back the bedsheets and hanging my legs off the edge of the bed.

I definitely got a shock when I finally stood up – the weight of the babies was a whole lot fuller with their growth spurt. I looked down over my belly, startled at the new size swelling out before me, and moved through the room to Theo’s mirror. I stood sideways to stare at the new roundness.

“Christ.” I muttered, tentatively running a hand down over it in the mirror.

It was a lot bigger than I’d grown used to over the past few weeks, and most definitely not the simple swelling I’d had between my hipbones when it first started growing at the Burnetts’. This was _proper_ – anyone who looked at this would know I was pregnant for sure if I didn’t wear clothes to hide it. Up at my sternum was still flat, all the way down to perhaps three centimetres above my belly button. That’s where the rise lifted before there was a dip, and then the fullness started. And it was _full._

I experimented, finding my hipbone and nudging my thumb in front of it. I measured the distance with my index finger, measuring how far in front of my hipbone my belly had swollen to. When I brought the measurement up to my eyes, an eyebrow lifted. _Shit._

Five inches. Five entire inches.

I looked down at it properly, sighing at the view from above.

“You guys need to slow down. I’m still getting used to this.”

I didn’t receive a response, obviously, but kept the thought in the back of my mind that soon maybe they would be able to hear me. At sixteen weeks, Theo’s website said. According to the assumption Edith had made a month ago, they should only be thirteen weeks. But looking down at them now, I wasn’t so sure. I didn’t know what thirteen weeks with twins was meant to look like, but something told me not _this._ This was more.

I started to feel the dark, piercing sensation of dread and panic forming inside my chest, right over my heart. It was an awful feeling and I frowned at myself, feeling it start to expand before reminding myself of all Theo’s encouraging words earlier.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, telling myself that it was _okay._ It was okay to be overwhelmed, but I would be fine because I had Theo. This wasn’t a bad thing. This was the babies. _Our_ babies.

When I opened my eyes, I almost smiled.

The dread and panic went away. It went running and fleeing from my chest at the threat of Theo, just the thought of him enough to make me feel stronger and more confident. He made me less scared.

I took one last look at my belly in the mirror before taking a deep breath and turning away to find my underwear. I threw on one of Theo’s t-shirts, not even bothering with pants before making my way out and down the hallway – I knew Scott wouldn’t give two shits if I was half-naked.

My alpha was laid out on the sofa, his head lifting when he heard my footsteps on the floorboards. He smiled when his eyes found mine, sitting up and turning away from the TV.

“Hey, how’d you sleep?”

I nodded like _eh._  
“Fairly well. Sorry I kept you waiting out here.”

Scott stood and followed me into the kitchen, leaning back against one of the counters while I stuck my head in the fridge to find something that wouldn’t make me want to puke.

“Not at all, you need all the rest you can get.” He palmed off my apology sympathetically from behind me. “How are you feeling anyway?”

I shrugged, elbowing the fridge shut with a carton of juice under one arm and a punnet of strawberries in the other.

“All right.” I supposed, dropping my items onto the bench next to Scott’s hip. “The babies grew.”

“Yeah?” He was interested immediately, his face lighting up with excitement when I decided to talk about it.

I turned to show him, lifting Theo’s shirt to reveal the newly expanded bulge. Scott’s eyes widened and his brows lifted with surprise, a laugh leaving his chest.

“Woah, yes they _did._ ” He took a step back to get a better look. “They got big fast.”

I sighed, once again fighting off the anxiety that threatened to ruin my morning.

“I know. Hope they don’t keep it up, we’re nowhere near ready.”

I stuffed a strawberry in my mouth, busying my hands with slicing off the tops of the rest and dissecting them before scooping them into a bowl. Scott carried my orange juice, settling down onto the sofa beside me while I stuffed my face.

“How many weeks are they?”

“No idea,” I shrugged, our eyes on the TV. “They’re meant to be thirteen but I think they’re bigger.”

I felt my alpha’s eyes back on the babies before he jumped with a sudden idea.

“Oh, by the way,” He turned to face me. “Remember Deaton told you about getting that scan? Translucency scan?”

I nodded – yet another thing on my mental to-do list that persisted to nag at me.

“Don’t get mad, but I kinda told my Mom.”

My eyes widened and I turned to look at him, my mouth opening to ask an exasperated, _why?!_ before his hands flew up to stop me.

“She works at the hospital, I thought she might know someone who could do one for you.”

“I don’t want to see just _anyone._ ” I murmured, the memories of Edith resurfacing in my mind and unsettling my nerves. “I don’t trust anyone. No one but Theo. Not with them.”

Scott knew I was talking about my fear of anyone touching the babies. Ever since the conflict I’d almost killed myself with after my first ultrasound, and the way the Burnetts used to press their hands down over my belly… _no._

Just the idea of a random doctor trapping me on a hospital bed and crowding up against me to press a transducer deep into my womb made me want to- _oh._

“Fuck.”

I got up, tossing aside my bowl and moving as quickly as I could into the kitchen.

Scott followed right behind me, a hand pressing down over my back while I leant above the sink. My breaths heaved deep and I stared into the drain, my eyes squeezing shut as I willed myself not to vomit.

The sickness was swirling with anxiety and trauma, the memories flashing back and forth behind my eyes and causing a tremble in my elbows.

“Liam, ground yourself.” Scott’s hand was circling over my back, firm with his voice in my ear. “You’re home, you’re safe.”

“You don’t… understand.”

I could almost feel the hot, unwanted palm of Mark Burnett pressing into the babies. I saw his dark chocolate eyes in the darkness of the lab and heard the low, hateful sneer of his voice as he threatened me with sedatives and told me how weak I was.

“I might not be Theo, but I’m still your alpha.” Scott spoke over Mark’s voice inside my head. “I can still feel you to some extent. I know what you’re seeing.”

I looked up from the stainless steel of the kitchen sink, my lungs still palpitating with the shock in my veins. My eyes found Scott’s and he held me there while the worry seeped out of me and into him. It was like he was drawing the trauma out of me.

“They’re gone, Liam. They’re in jail for the rest of their lives and you and your twins are _safe._ No one is going to hurt you, not anymore. No one will touch you without your permission, you hear me?”

I sighed, nodding when the fear started to fade.

I swallowed, leaning back over the sink and lowering my head to breathe out the rest of the nausea. I’d gotten good at this, resisting it. I just had to think of something completely unrelated, like the colour of Theo’s eyes or the brand of his laundry detergent. The total number of shoes he owned or exactly how many freckles were spattered across his shoulder blades.

The nausea left.

I heaved a breath of relief and my shoulders loosened. Scott’s hand still circled around and around upon my back.

“You okay?”

I nodded tiredly, leaning up from the sink and slowly moving back into the lounge room with my alpha at my side.

“Yeah. Sorry you had to deal with that.”

He sat down on one end of the sofa, placing a cushion on his lap and patting it indicatively. I lowered myself down, noticing the press the babies had upon the top of my thighs when I bent over too far. I found a way to manoeuvre so that mobility felt easier with them so full down there, carefully laying down on my back and settling my head upon the cushion on Scott’s lap.

I laced my fingers over my chest and took a deep breath when his fingers started threading through my hair like he knew I needed it.

“You don’t need to be sorry, Liam. You know that.” His voice was soft and supportive like his touch. “It’s post-traumatic stress. You can’t control it.”

We were quiet for a while, the TV serving as the perfect background noise to distract my mind from wandering back into the dark forest of memories I’d just escaped from. The fingers in my hair stroked methodically, working to gather it all up over the cushion like a short ponytail.

“Are you talking about it?” Scott asked eventually. “What you’re experiencing?”

I nodded on the cushion, my eyes watching the world outside while a cold, wintery breeze blew at the plants on the balcony.

“Yeah. It’s just going to take time to pass, I think.” I took a deep breath to relax myself before I addressed the conversation topic I’d freaked out over. “What did your Mom say? About the scan.”

Scott took a short moment to reply, knowing we needed to take the conversation slow.

“Actually, she knows how to do one.”

I tilted my head on the cushion, looking up at him with soft interest.

“Really? She knows radiology?” – Scott nodded. – “I thought she was a nurse.”

He shrugged, squinting in indecision.  
“She hasn’t done a qualification for it, but she’s learnt from the people she works with. It’s like a hospital secret; if the board found out they’d probably suspend her.”

“Then she probably shouldn’t do one for me.” I frowned at the consequences. I didn’t want to have Melissa losing her job stuck on my conscience.

“She does it every day, the whole hospital knows. She _offered_ , Liam.”

I observed the glass ornament on our coffee table while I thought about it. I still didn’t want a scan, but if I needed to do one I didn’t really have a choice. The babies had to be checked on.

“Besides,” Scott continued casually. “I think it will be a lot easier on your anxiety if it’s Mom. She’s someone you’re fond of, someone you know. You won’t feel so trapped if she’s the one doing it.”

He was right. I knew Melissa, almost saw her like an aunt. If there was anyone in the world I would feel comfortable next to while in a hospital bed, it would be her. Ideally Theo, but he wasn’t a radiologist.

I sighed and grit my teeth. I had to do the damn scan someday. I couldn’t go the rest of the pregnancy without one, no way.

“Okay.” I finally answered, albeit reluctantly. “I’ll do it.”

“Yeah?”

I nodded.  
“Yeah.”

The hand playing with my hair stilled, only to reach up and stroke over my forehead. _Proud of you, Liam._

“When would you want to go?” He asked conversationally, doing his best not to make a huge deal out of the situation. “Before you go back to school?”

I wanted to groan at the reminder.

“Yeah. Theo’s got tomorrow off… could try then.”

His hip lifted under my head and I felt him reaching into his pocket for his phone. He signed into it, tapping away to find something on the screen.

“I’ll just call Mom and ask if she has the time.”

I waited on the pillow, trying to watch the shit programme they had playing on the daytime TV. Scott’s fingers continued through my hair, stroking all the way from my hairline to the tips of the strands while he waited for an answer.

It came after the fifth ring.  
“Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital, you’re speaking with Anne.”

“Anne, it’s Scott. Is Mom available at all?”

“Aaah _yes,_ I think she’s just come back from a patient, give me one moment.”

If it weren’t for the wolf-hearing, I wouldn’t have been listening. But my ears picked up the conversation clearly, making it difficult to ignore. It wasn’t like Scott minded anyway.

“Scott?” Melissa answered on the other line. “Please don’t tell me Stiles has broken another appliance. I can only dress so many electrical burns before his father starts asking questions.”

“Mom, hey. No, Stiles is fine… _I think_.” I watched him frown to himself. “Look, this is about Liam.”

“Oh, Liam? How is he?”

Scott looked down to me, his eyes flitting warmly over my features.

“He’s doing good. Hey, about that scan. Are you free for long enough to do it tomorrow? That’s the only day Theo has off before the weekend and Liam will need him in there. And I know you guys are busy weekends, so…”

“Um…” We heard rustling in the background before she answered. “I’m not sure, let me check tomorrow’s schedule.”

My alpha’s brown eyes stayed on mine, the both of us staring comfortably while his fingers stroked over my forehead gently. My eyes were even growing heavy with relaxation.

“It’s a translucency scan, right?” Melissa double checked, to which Scott confirmed. “And he’s got twins?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm.”

I blinked at the uncertain tone to her voice and Scott’s expression shifted.

“Why? Is that bad?”

“No, just these scans are thorough.” His mother explained. “They’re designed to inspect the organs and take close-up 3D images. For one baby it takes up to half an hour, but because he’s got two it will take a lot longer. An hour, almost.”

The blood slowly drained from my face, my skin paling under Scott’s touch.

One entire hour? Stuck on a hospital bed with a transducer digging into me?

Scott felt the panic rising again and his palm pressed over my forehead, his thumb brushing over my brow to try to calm me. Nausea rose back to power inside my stomach and I felt it grumbling and churning with the threat to make me vomit. My skin started burning up and I shut my eyes, trying to breathe deep and remember all my unrelated thoughts about Theo.

“I think I’ll be able to fit him in before lunchtime.” Melissa concluded at last. “I have a spare slot between patient rounds at ten-thirty. Can he do that?”

Scott’s eyes bore into mine, silently asking while I tried to distract myself from the sickness in my belly. I swallowed and nodded despite the colossal urge begging me to say no and just forget I ever needed another ultrasound.

“Yeah.” Scott answered faintly, slowly. “Yeah, he can do it.”

“Awesome. Do you know if he’s had bloods done? How far along is he? _He,_ god, I never thought I’d ask _that.”_

“ _Mom._ ” Scott sighed, looking down to me for the answers. “He said there were some complications with the actual size of the twins. He’s technically only two months in but the hunters told him the babies were nine weeks, and now they’ve just grown and they should be thirteen but we’re thinking they’re bigger than that.”

The other line was silent for a long few seconds and I lifted a brow up at Scott for the brief and confusing explanation. _Good one._

He bit his lip and grimaced, shrugging down at me awkwardly while his mother tried to process the information.

“I’m…” She tried, failing with a sigh. “Okay, that doesn’t sound normal. It sounds like there’s an extra growth occurring, perhaps he has ovarian cysts or-”

“Mom, this isn’t a normal pregnancy. Liam is a _werewolf_ , Theo is part-werewolf, part werecoyote-”

“He’s part _what and what?”_

Scott sighed, almost reaching up to palm over his face.

“He’s a _Chimera_ , Mom, just leave it at that. What I’m getting at is that we don’t know anything about this, we don’t know what’s normal and what isn’t. Maybe the super quick growth is regular for this kind of thing. But he’s got no cysts, Mom, just the babies.”

I could almost feel the confusion and frustration coming through the phone from Melissa. I felt bad for her; she was trying so hard to understand the supernatural world but it just kept throwing even weirder shit at her. I felt the same most of the time but I’d learnt to just go with it.

“Well, are you sure they’re _human_ babies and not some strange creatures-?”

“ _Seriously_ , what do you think Liam is, a _troll?_ ”

“I just don’t understand how they can keep skipping weeks like that!”

“It doesn’t matter, they’re growing and that’s that. Just… he needs the scan, Mom, please don’t make this any harder than it already is.”

There was a deep breath on the other end before Melissa seemed to relent.

“Okay. Okay, fine. Just tell me about his blood status and that’ll be all the questions I have.”

He lifted his brows in question and my mouth fell open before I had words to let out, my head shaking for a moment before I shrugged.

“I… I haven’t had any blood tests. The Burnetts didn’t really get that far.”

“He hasn’t had any.” He told Melissa.

“Oh, goodness. Okay. Uh, we’ll need to get him to do those first. Can he come by the hospital today? I can draw the blood myself.”

I swallowed. _Oh god._

“He’s with me today, Theo doesn’t get off work until two-thirty. I can bring him down if you need…?”

The question at the end of his sentence was more for me than for his Mom. He watched me while I paled even further at the idea of getting a blood test, not wanting to answer for me but also having just done so.

I shut my eyes for a second before nodding. If I had to do it, I didn’t have a choice. _Get it done for the babies,_ I told myself.

“I’m free again in half an hour. Can you get here by then?”

Scott nodded.  
“Yeah. Yeah, we’ll be there.”

“Okay, well I have to go honey. Meet me at the nurse’s station in half, all right?”

“All right. Thanks Mom.”

“Bye, sweetie.”

Scott hung up with a deep breath, looking down upon me with an expression mixed with uncertainty and shock. I tried to keep myself calm and breathing evenly upon the pillow, my heart already pounding nervously in anticipation of not only a blood test, but an ultrasound tomorrow, too.

“I’ll be with you.” He tried to comfort me, although we both knew it wouldn’t do much. “Are you sure you want to do it? We can wait for Theo if you need.”

“No, I can do it.” I lied. “If the babies need it, I have to.”

He knew I wasn’t sure. He wasn’t stupid and he definitely wasn’t blind. A sigh left his mouth before he nodded and brushed my hair back one last time before helping me to sit up.

“Well uh, I came on the bike,” He grimaced, stuffing his phone back into his jeans pocket as he stood. “I’ll have to ride to Stiles’s and borrow the Jeep. Do you think you’ll be all right on your own for fifteen minutes?”

I lifted a brow.  
“If Theo finds out, he’ll freak. I’ll just come on the bike with you.”

Scott watched me in disbelief.  
“Are you kidding? Coming on the bike with me is _worse_ than leaving you here. He’s already super protective of you, what do you think he’ll do when he hears that I took you out on a _dirtbike_ without a second helmet?”

I managed to stand up on my own and raked my hair back, shrugging and moving past him with a deep breath.

“He’ll get over it, it’s easier this way.” I muttered, disappearing down the hallway and into my bedroom. “Just let me find some pants that _fit._ ”

I heard Scott’s low laugh from out in the kitchen, and honestly I couldn’t blame him. I would’ve found it funny too if it weren’t happening to _me._  

The struggle to find such a pair of pants was phenomenal. The only kind that would even come close to fitting over the newly expanded bulge of my belly were elastic-waisted pyjama pants – and that was a _no._ I would not be caught out in public wearing pyjamas. Not _yet_ anyway. I still had some dignity left.

Eventually I ended up moving into Theo’s room and rifling through his own drawers; his jeans were one size bigger, purely to accommodate for those muscular thighs and the extra three inches of height he had on me. I felt like a total whale for resorting to wearing my boyfriend’s clothes, but decided that I could save the real embarrassment for when I had to actually shop for larger jeans. The dread filled me just to think about it.

Theo’s jeans fit perfectly around my belly. I didn’t even need a damn belt. The leg was a little too low over my heels and my thighs didn’t quite fill them out like his did, but the issues weren’t noticeable. At least I got to smell like him.

I found the same black pullover hoodie I’d borrowed during our trip to the school and stuffed it over my head, navigating my way out into the hallway purely by memory with the material covering my vision. Scott was waiting for me beside the front door, his eyes raking over my borrowed outfit before he let himself smile.

“All Theo’s?”

I nodded grudgingly.  
“Don’t say anything. Please. It’s embarrassing enough.”

My alpha laughed, watching while I struggled slightly to pull an old pair of sneakers over my heels. I almost had to stop to take a breath from the way my belly was trapped under my ribs from bending over, my lungs suffering a tight squeeze, but I managed out of pure stubbornness. Because _no,_ I wasn’t even a third of the way through this pregnancy. I was _not_ going to let myself become handicapped by a first trimester belly.

I straightened up with a triumphant breath and pocketed my phone and wallet, locking up and following Scott downstairs to his bike. We piled onto the seat together, my thighs hugging his and my arms looping around his middle while he kicked the engine to life.

“Does Stiles know you’re coming?”

He shook his head, offering me his helmet. I declined it.

“He won’t mind. He’s probably still in bed, honestly.” He looked down at my arms where they gripped onto him. “Imagine Theo’s face if he saw this. I feel bad.”

I shrugged, laying my head down upon his back while he pulled the helmet over his head.

“He’ll understand, Scott.”

My alpha seemed uncertain, his shoulders a little worried before he kicked the stand up and walked us a few feet onto the road.

“Hold on.”

I did as he said, closing my eyes and trying not to panic when we took off with a lurch. For an old dirtbike, it had guts. My thighs clung to his and I tried my best to keep my weight steady when we turned the corner, the bike accelerating onto the main road and zooming off towards the west.

The drive took all of five minutes, although to my nerves it felt more like ten. I could feel the press of the babies down low against my pubic bone where they lay trapped between my intestines and Scott’s lower back. It was a heavier pressure than I was used to and it started to grow sore.

The trip was over before it could turn into proper pain, however, and I was immediately distracted from my discomfort anyway when a familiar vehicle came into view, parked out the front of Stiles’s house. _What?_

Scott was a mixture of surprise and confusion as well, his entire body going rigid with it when he walked us to a stop in the driveway.

“What the hell?” I asked softly over his shoulder, my feet gratefully finding solid ground while he killed the engine and took off his helmet.

He shook his head slowly, his scent thick with misunderstanding.

“I have no idea.”

We both dismounted the bike, Scott’s hands coming out to steady me when I lost my balance. The both of us stood and stared for a long moment, entirely perplexed as to why Derek Hale’s black Chevrolet Camaro was parked on the curb.

“Did he tell you he was in town?”

Scott denied it softly, wary anticipation in his eyes as he came to a conclusion slowly. I caught onto it right away from the sense of foreboding coming from his skin.

_Oh. Oh, goddamn._

He looked to me, his brown eyes almost scared.  
“Honestly? I don’t think anyone was meant to know he’s here.”

I bit my lip, looking up to the house hesitantly. We both knew we were thinking the same thing, but… Stiles? Really? It didn’t seem right.

“Maybe he’s here to see Sheriff Stilinski?” I knew it was a pointless suggestion but the almost horrified expression on Scott’s face made me feel so damn sorry for him.

He didn’t even answer, staring up at the front door speechlessly.

I nudged at his arm, taking the lead slowly.  
“Come on. We need his keys.”

Scott reached out to catch my elbow, brown eyes warning and wide. He gawked at me wordlessly before I sent him a fond kind of nod, one that said all kinds of things. One, that we knew we needed to just get this over with because we both knew Scott wouldn’t be able to ignore this forever. Two, that it wasn’t like we were walking into a murderhouse and that we would be okay. And three, it wasn’t something I’d never seen before – if what we thought was happening was actually happening. It wasn’t _new_ to me, not in the slightest.

Scott knew that, but neither of us dared to say it.

His face almost whined before he lowered his head slightly, letting go of my elbow and reluctantly letting me lead the way up to the front door. I cracked it open tentatively, relieved when it didn’t creak out to notify the entire house that we were entering.

I almost felt Scott’s entire body cringe behind me when both the scents and the noises reached us immediately upon stepping past the welcome mat. The house was filled with it – the smell of tension and lust and _sex._

And the sounds… Stiles wasn’t leaving a thing to the imagination.

_“Ah! Ah, ah, ah! Fuck, aaah! Fucking shit! Oh!”_

Scott’s eyes squeezed shut and he turned in upon himself.

“God, I can’t do this.” He muttered, a fist closing around my wrist for support. “I can’t, _not Stiles.”_

_“Oh, fuck! Right there! Yesyesyes, oh fuck! Fuck!”_

“Hey, it’s okay.” I let him come close to my side, turning his head to look behind me over my shoulder while he tried his best to process what we were hearing and smelling. “I’ll go up if you really can’t stomach it.”

He took a deep breath, his chest heaving against my arm while he steeled himself.

“We could just leave a note-”

“Scott.” I murmured knowingly. “You can’t just ignore this. He’s your best friend. Isn’t it better that you just get it over with and _find out_ so no one’s lying to each other?”

“Not by walking in on them _having sex_.”

“ _Fuckfuckfuck, yes! Derek, harder! Harder, right there! Ngh!”_

A deep, guttural growl sounded through the house, rumbling down from atop the staircase. It was followed by several rough collisions, much like the sound of a headboard being slammed into a wall.

Even _I_ started to grimace. Poor Scott.

“Look, I’ll go.” I nodded, patting his shoulder supportively. His eyes grew wider. “Honestly, it’s okay. You just get his keys.”

“Liam, no. You can’t go alone.” He held onto my wrist tighter. “I… god, I don’t want to see it but if Derek flips when you show up in the doorway… you could get _hurt_. I won’t let that happen. Just… ground me, okay?”

I watched him sympathetically for a moment longer before nodding, reaching up to grasp at his hand before slowly pulling him towards the staircase. We started to ascend as carefully as we could, the sounds and smells growing louder and stronger until my lungs started to seize with the potency. _Damn these pregnancy senses._  

The heartbeats coming from Stiles’s room were racing at a phenomenal frequency, the gasps and cries from the two reciprocating the physical exertion they were clearly experiencing.

Scott’s fingers tightened in mine and I ran a thumb over his knuckles, tugging him further and further until, finally, the scene came into view.

_Jesus._

I felt the alpha at my arm solidify in shock and horror.

Derek’s skin was a very dark caramel in comparison to Stiles’s. He made the guy look like snow.

He had Stiles on his back, bearing down on him in a frighteningly impressive show of muscle and power with his human folded in half, his ankles right up by Derek’s ears. Even I was wide-eyed and frozen at the brutal force of his thrusts – the entire bed was shaking, slamming back and forth against the wall and marking the paint with black abrasions from the impact. I wasn’t even sure how Stiles wasn’t tearing in half with the ferocity. He wasn’t skinny or petite by any means, but Derek… _god._ He was putting an entirely new meaning to the concept of having the shit fucked out of you.

Scott and I stood stock still in the face of the scene, unable to move for a very long while out of pure shock. Neither of us knew how to interrupt or what the hell to say once we did, but our heartbeats and scents did it for us.

The two of us braced when Derek’s movements halted to an immediate stop, his head lifting in alarm when he caught wind of our presence. Stiles’s hands slid up the wolf’s thick forearms, the wheezing gasps that left his chest brewing my concern for his respiratory health.

“Derek? Babe, what’s the matter? What’s…?”

Scott’s fingers crushed mine when both of their heads turned to spot us in the doorway. I felt a sharp snap in my hand, followed by an intense burn as he broke my knuckle. A loud, desperate cry of pain left my mouth and my brows worried hard at the agony, but I didn’t look away from the two dumbstruck lovers in front of us.

Scott’s hand dropped mine immediately, the poor thing too shocked to even apologise. I cradled my palm to my chest with my other hand, the breath sucking in through my teeth at the pain.

Scott and Stiles seemed to stare at each other for years and years, the latter’s breaths becoming sharper and harsher as the panic rose inside him. Derek finally found movement, dropping down onto the mattress beside Stiles and covering them with a quick whip of the bedsheets over their groins. Stiles sat up instantly, the wince that hissed from his lips distinctly reminding me of the ache I’d felt deep in my ass after Theo and I had first slept together. I almost felt sympathy pain for him at the sight.

“Scott,” Stiles started to beg. I could see him shaking on the arms that held him up. “Scott, _please,_ I can explain, I-”

“Keys.” Scott interrupted him loudly, blankly. The words came out randomly, completely unplanned and out of pure distress. “I need your keys. The hospital. Couldn’t take the bike.”

Stiles’s eyes seemed to well up, the slow shake of his head expressing the dread he was feeling at the confrontation.

“Scott, _please. Please,_ I need to-”

“I need your _keys,_ Stiles.” Was all Scott could say, his eyes lowering to the carpet so he didn’t have to see his best friend naked and freshly-slammed by _Derek –_ by someone he’d known for years. “We… we can talk, just not now. Please.”

Stiles’s eyes let the tears escape, his breaths straining to prevent the sobs before he nodded in despair.

“Yeah. Yeah, take them.”

The alpha turned from beside me, moving instantly to escape down the hallway while the images he’d just witnessed burned in his mind.

Stiles and Derek looked at me, both of them in shock and guilt while I backed away, turning to catch up to Scott with a breath from the pain in my hand. I heard rushed voices from behind me before heavy footsteps started to follow, and I turned in the middle of the staircase to find Derek pacing after us with just a bath towel around his waist.

“ _Wait,_ ” He made his way down the stairs, his eyes moving hurriedly over mine before finding Scott’s figure at the bottom floor. “Scott, _wait.”_

Scott didn’t stop, avoiding even looking in Derek’s direction while he moved to the coat rack by the door and rifled inside a jacket pocket for Stiles’s keys. Derek looked back to me, eden eyes alight and apologetic before he moved past me and paced after Scott.

“Scott, I’m sorry.” He told the alpha to the back of his head. “I know we should have said something and that was _not_ the way you should’ve found out, but-”

“It’s none of my business, Derek.” Scott had found the keys but kept his back to Derek, his shoulders taut with the desperate need to escape the house.

“Stiles is your best friend, I’m like _family_ to you – of course it’s your business-”

Scott moved away, stepping towards the front door quickly with his head down and his jaw set. Derek followed after him, reaching out to close a hand around his arm to stop him from slipping past the welcome mat. I’d never seen the wolf so desperate.

“Scott, _stop,_ I’m _sorry.”_

Scott whirled around to look Derek in the eyes, the bright red flash of his alpha flaring out in warning. He yanked his arm from Derek’s grasp, stopping the wolf’s movement and his words.

“Just _stop,_ Derek!” He growled, backing away. “I can’t deal with this right now. _I can’t,_ just…”

Derek’s shoulders almost fell at the stress in Scott’s behaviour. I was almost afraid to try slipping past him to follow Scott.

“Just give me time.” The alpha finally finished, turning and moving towards the Jeep to fling himself into the driver’s seat. The door clanked shut and he braced his arms over the steering wheel, lowering his head into the cradle.

Derek stood and stared after him for a few more moments before stepping back inside and turning to where I stood a few feet away. He looked upset, defeated, his eyes roaming tensely over my face before lowering to sight the distinct swell of the babies in my belly from behind Theo’s hoodie.

I swallowed self-consciously, tugging the hem down with my uninjured hand.

“Are you okay?” He asked me, his voice lower and softer than I expected. He approached slowly and I let him. “Did you get hurt?”

I looked down to the left hand I was still unconsciously cradling to my sternum and held it out to inspect, a dark bruise already forming over my third knuckle.

“Scott just… no, I mean, he squeezed too hard but I’m fine. Really, it’s just a broken bone.”

Derek’s eyes worried over me for a second, moving between my injured hand and my belly.

His scent turned softer at the sight of the babies. It lessened, calmed down and somehow grew warmer like he was forcing himself to seem less tense, just to improve the atmosphere for me so the babies didn’t stress. It was considerate, very different.

“I can take the pain,” He offered. “It’ll help with the healing.”

I shook my head gratefully.

“It’s okay, honestly. It’s not even that bad.” I watched while he nodded softly, his jaw tensing with the remorse he felt over Scott. I stepped a little closer. “He’ll be okay, you know. He’s not mad about it.”

He didn’t meet my eyes, stressed and observing the floor while he listened.

“Just give him time, he’ll come around when he’s ready.” I reached out tentatively, closing a hand around his bicep when he didn’t flinch away. “Just… take care of Stiles, yeah? Tell him everything’s going to be fine.”

The boy in question appeared at the top of the stairs, hastily dressed and red-faced with agony. I waited for Derek to nod softly before I patted his arm, sending one last hopeful look up to Stiles before letting myself out the front door and shutting it behind me.

I climbed into the Jeep next to Scott, laying a hand over his back when his head didn’t lift from the steering wheel.

“It’ll be okay.” I told him softly. “I told them you’re not mad.”

A few silent seconds passed before his back expanded with a deep breath, his head rising for him to lean back against the seat with a huff. Ten years had been added to his features at least. He looked so out of his depth, so exhausted.

“Just wasn’t prepared for something like that.” He admitted quietly. “Never would’ve picked it.”

I tipped my head at him sympathetically.  
“You know he’s still the same Stiles. Nothing’s going to change that.”

“I know, but just…” He shook his head, sighing and seeming to physically shake it off. “I don’t want to think about it. Let me see your hand.”

“It’s fine, really.”

He turned, reaching for my wrist anyway and pulling it close for inspection. His eyes roamed over the bruise sadly, a fingertip running over it softly.

“I’m sorry,” He whispered. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“It doesn’t matter, I’ll heal. Just worry about _you._ ”

He laid my hand over his out-held palm, closing his other over the top tenderly.

“Let me at least take the pain.” He insisted, the veins in his hands and wrists slowly darkening as the ache from my injury started transferring into him. “It’ll kickstart the healing. We don’t know how the stress to your body will affect the babies.”

I couldn’t argue, sitting obediently and waiting while all my pain was drawn out and sucked into Scott. His brow furrowed as my ache became his, his eyes darting down to my belly with soft surprise.

“I can feel them.” He observed softly, referring to the babies. “They’re putting pressure on you, making you uncomfortable. Is it always like this?”

I was a little intrigued, glancing down before shrugging.

“I never noticed. Must be used to it, I guess.”

His hands slowly let go of mine, the throb completely gone from the broken knuckle. I already felt it repairing itself, little tingles and flutters nudging around under my skin. The bruising had already started to fade.

I kept it still and laid it in my lap, pulling the seatbelt over my shoulder one-handedly while Scott started the engine and pulled out of the driveway quicker than was necessary. He put his foot down and shifted gears determinedly, taking the task of driving as a welcome distraction for his mind so he didn’t ponder over the shocking scene he’d just witnessed. I would have been more shocked if I wasn’t already familiar with the ins and outs of gay sex.

We were quiet in the Jeep for the whole drive to the hospital, which was quite okay because I had no idea what I could’ve said to make Scott feel any better. He mostly just needed time to deal with what he saw, and spending time with me was a distraction so I refused to ruin that for him. 

It was when we pulled up into the parking lot of the hospital that it actually dawned on me that I was there to get a blood test, and the scene with Stiles and Derek fled from my mind quick smart. I felt my stomach shift with anxiety as the nausea from earlier resurfaced, my mouth going dry with fear.

Scott opened his door and I reached out to stop him.

“Scott.” He turned to look at me questioningly. “I just… I need you to help me. The smells, the hospital…”

He clicked onto what I meant right away, his eyes widening in realisation before he nodded willingly.

“Yeah, of course. No problem. I’ll be right there with you, I promise.”

I took a deep breath and nodded, turning to slide down from the Jeep and follow him warily up to the front entrance. He pressed a hand to my lower back, staying close beside me when we walked through the doors.

The smell definitely hit me quickly, but not entirely in all the ways I expected.

I expected the disinfectant and plastic and latex to be identical to that of the Burnetts’ lab, to bring back all the awful memories of my captivity. But it wasn’t identical. Instead of bringing back memories of the Burnetts, it brought back memories of the last fight. I stopped short beside Scott in the middle of the hallway, my eyes trained on the elevator ahead while it all swarmed back to me.

I saw the hunters, every single one of them. I saw the flickering lights and heard the explosion of their gunshots, smelt their blood and their fury. I heard the pack’s yells and growls, saw bright flashes of orange light as each gun fired in the darkness around me.

And then I saw the elevator. I saw myself in the mirror, standing with the same fearful expression in the same dull grey shirt, except it was a somehow _younger_ me, with shorter, neater hair and a _flat_ belly. And I was in there with Theo. He was gorgeous – his hair was shorter, too. Pushed back from his face. The sweep of the black t-shirt over his collarbones was just as hot as it was today.

The tension in the air between us had been so strong, I can’t believe I never noticed it before. We were staring at each other, both anxious and afraid of the fight that waited outside those elevator doors for us, although we’d never show it or admit it.

I saw the concerned, serious hazel of Theo’s eyes as he looked over my face. He was still so beautiful, but he looked at me so… _differently._ He was distant and guarded, and entirely not what I’d grown used to seeing over the past six months. His eyes were darker and his face was harder, more serious. Nowhere near the relaxed, tender face I knew today.

I felt the denial in our bodies together as we fought over the situation – the denial of those feelings we had just being alone in a confined space together. It was chemistry, attraction. Sexual tension.

I felt the disappointment radiate from our hearts when we said the words that I was now so positive we didn’t mean.

“I’m not dying for you.”

“I’m not dying for you, _either.”_

It hurt to see, hurt to hear. We were so _apart._ It wasn’t like us, it wasn’t the way we were meant to be. Everything about the past was _wrong_. Stressful and so _wrong._

I remember looking away after we’d stared, trying to escape the colour of his eyes boring into mine lest I lean in to press our lips together – because I knew that was exactly what I wanted, deep down. For Theo to lean in, close a hand around the back of my neck and _kiss_ me. And he almost did it, too.

I hadn’t realised I was hyperventilating until I heard myself from through the haze of my vision, felt the shift of a heavy weight low in my stomach that turned out to be the babies squirming inside me, because they knew I was upset. They knew something was wrong.

I blinked and suddenly the vision was gone, and I came back to reality with a flash of white and an influx of sounds while I gasped and gripped onto Scott’s shoulders hard on the hospital floor. My back was against the row of waiting chairs in the entrance and Melissa McCall was bent over Scott’s shoulder while several doctors and visitors alike stood in the background, shocked and staring while I panicked and came back from the vision.

“Scott-” I wheezed as I came back, the babies upset inside me and my broken hand aching anew with how hard I was gripping his shoulders. “I… _I can’t breathe.”_

“It’s all going to be okay, Liam, I’m right here.” He tried to soothe me, a hand over my heart while I gasped and choked on the floor. “You’re safe, everything’s fine.”

“Sweetheart, you need to focus.” Melissa directed me, a hand reaching past Scott to hold onto the side of my head. “Focus on what you can feel around you. Ground yourself.”

I blinked hard, leaning my head back against the arm of one of the waiting chairs and letting my chest heave. I did as she said, focusing on the firmness of the ground underneath me. The world stopped moving as my mind rediscovered the pull of gravity, the solid weight of Scott’s hand upon my sternum. I let myself feel Melissa’s hand on my head and the press of the chair into my back and the back of my head.

_This is real. You just had a vision._

 I shut my eyes, the oxygen finally registering in my lungs while the spinning in my head slowed down. The ground helped me find my equilibrium, the babies finally settling inside my stomach when my heartrate started to drop.

I breathed deep and even, opening my eyes again when I felt ready. People had started moving off again, deciding to finally mind their own business. Scott was relieved before me, my hands sliding off his shoulders and falling to my lap in exhaustion. Melissa was concerned, however, her expression refusing to budge as she worried down at me.

“Have you been to a psychiatrist for this?” She inquired softly, causing a rise out of Scott.

“ _Mom,_ don’t be rude!”

“I’m not trying, honey,” She shrugged, kneeling down to reach out to feel my forehead for the fever in my skin. “Have you been experiencing dreams? Negative thought processes, fevers, agitation?”

“Mom-”

I nodded softly, my breaths finally dropping from a pant. Melissa’s eyes were just like Scott’s, brown and caring while she processed my answer sadly.

“Sweetheart, you just had what we call an episode,” She tried to explain it evenly, calmly. “Episodes are visions, memories that are triggered by certain places, sounds, smells or actions that remind you of a traumatic experience in the past that has damaged you. They are the result of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.”

I tried to take deep breaths to keep my heartrate from spiking again, already feeling the babies shift when the information registered negatively inside my head.

“Mom, you’re scaring him.” Scott’s hand reached up to touch my shoulder. “Just relax, Liam. You’re going to be fine.”

“He needs help for this, Scott. If it goes untreated-”

“He’s been _strong_ , Mom!” He hissed to her. “This is the first time he’s been to a hospital since the hunters took him, he just reacted to the environment. He _talks_ about things, he’s not bottling it up and it’s not going untreated. He just needs time to heal.”

“There are precautions he can take-”

I tried to tune out their argument, leaning my head back and looking away to focus my eyes on the clock upon the opposite wall. I watched its hand while it ticked with each second, finding myself counting with it before a sound broke through the room around us.

It paused Scott and Melissa’s debate, rousing me when the corresponding vibrations in my jeans indicated that my phone was ringing. I dug it out and felt my heart shudder when I saw Theo’s name on the screen, swiping to answer it immediately.

“Theo?”

The voice that came through was harsh and urgent.

“Liam, what the _fuck_ is happening? Why did I just get the most horrible fucking feeling that something was seriously wrong with you?”

_Oh. Our bond._

I tried to find the words to explain, Scott’s eyes widening upon mine when he heard Theo’s panicked questions.

“ _Liam?_ Liam, where the hell are you? What’s happening?”

“I- we’re at the hospital, we-”

“The _hospital? What?_ What the fuck happened, are you all right? Is it the babies?”

“ _No,_ no, they’re fine – I’m fine. Theo, it’s okay.”

“You’re scaring the shit out of me!”

“Theo, _please_. I’m okay.” I took a deep breath. “Scott told his Mom that I needed that transparency ultrasound and she offered to do one but I needed a blood test done first so we came to do one and we walked in and the smell just reminded me of the fight with the hunters and all these memories came back and I just…I…”

I stopped to breathe, my heart racing anew when the situation dawned on me that _shit._ I just had a full on episode. I had PTSD, and I blacked out in the middle of the fucking hospital and Theo felt all of it through our blood bond.

“What was it? Did you see things?”

I swallowed, nodding even though he couldn’t see through the phone.

“Scott’s Mom called it an episode. I blacked out, woke up on the floor and I couldn’t breathe.”

“ _Shit,_ Li.”

“She thinks it’s PTSD but I’m fine, I’m stable I promise. I can see and breathe and the babies stopped panicking. I’ll be fine.”

“I’m coming down there.”

“No,” I frowned at the idea that I was interrupting his goddamn shift _again_. “I’m fine, you don’t need to worry. I’ve got Scott and Mrs. McCall and you really can’t keep walking out on your shifts because of me-”

“You’re my _mate_ , Liam, if something’s fucking wrong I will come _home_ to you. Work comes _second_ to you, when will you _get that?_ ”

I didn’t reply, silent and hurting when his words came through harsh and agitated. I could hear him breathing deep on the other end, knowing he was trying to calm himself down. I knew he was just worried.

“I’m sorry, I just…”

“It’s okay. I know.”

“You scared the shit out of me. The things I felt… I nearly fucking collapsed in the middle of the shop, it was like someone had ripped my lungs out.” He took a moment to sigh. I could just imagine him leaning against a wall with his head back and his eyes closed. “Are you sure you’re okay? You’re not shaking or dizzy?”

I shook my head again, Scott and Melissa moving to sit down on either side of me on the waiting chairs I leaned against. I felt Scott’s hand in my hair.

“No, I’m all right. Just a little jumpy. I’m sorry I scared you.”

“Baby,” It sounded like he’d breathed a laugh, but I knew it was more like a breath of relief. “You don’t have to say _sorry._ God, it just… _fuck._ So you need a blood test? When are you getting the scan?”

I took a deep breath and sighed, slouching back against the seats.

“Scott’s Mom has time tomorrow before lunch, we were going to do it then so you could be here, day off and all. Apparently they need to do my bloods to diagnose levels or something, it’s for the babies.”

“Right.” He sounded much calmer, his voice having lowered from its urgency. “I can still come to be with you for the blood test, I know how much anxiety just being in that place gives you.”

“You don’t have to, Theo.” I denied softly. “I’ve got Scott; it’ll only take a few minutes anyway.”

“Are you sure? I can come if you need me to, Li.”

“It’s fine, honestly. You just relax, settle down and finish your shift.”

He sighed softly through the phone.  
“You sure?”

“Positive.” I promised. “I’ll text you when it’s over, yeah?”

“Yeah, text me. Let me know how you’re feeling.”

“I will. Talk soon, okay?”

“Okay. Love you, baby.”

“Love you. Bye.”

“Bye…”

I waited until he hung up, exhaustion suddenly rolling over me as my body relaxed after having spoken to my mate. Scott’s hand nudged in my hair.

“Everything all good?”

I nodded, moving to stand up from the floor. He rose and held out his hands to help me, and I felt Melissa’s hands on my back to aid me.

I raked my hair back and blew out a sigh, nodding.

“Yeah, he was a little shaken but he’s good. _I’m_ good.”

“Well,” Melissa reached up to fix a wayward strand over my temple. “You’re definitely resilient, I’ll give you that.”

Scott put a hand to my back, turning and guiding me forwards when she started off to lead us through the hospital.

“Like I told you, he’s strong.” He told his mother, his hand rubbing over my spine encouragingly. He turned his head to address me while we walked. “You sure you’re still okay to do this?”

I nodded, taking another deep breath to keep myself calm. _It’s just a needle. You’ve had worse._

“Yeah, I’m good.”

Melissa led us in through a doorway, revealing an all-white room filled with shelves upon shelves of plastic-wrapped instruments. I swallowed down the fear, telling myself it was nothing like the Burnetts’ lab. They had cupboards, not shelves. This was different.

“Take a seat, honey. I’ll need you to take off your jumper for me.”

I was shown to a large chair, basically a bench with tall arms and a cushion for your butt. I sat down and reluctantly pulled Theo’s hoodie off over my head, balling it up and holding it close on my lap. I leaned back and glanced down to the obvious roundness of my belly under my t-shirt, unable to prevent the way my muscles tightened in anxiety when it hit me that I was about to have a needle stuck into my vein. My fingers dropped to my lap and they started to twist and twine together, although only gently due to the ache of my half-healed knuckle.

“I’ll take your blood pressure first, just to double check that your hypertension levels aren’t still too high.” Melissa donned a pair of gloves, distinctly reminding me of Edith and Mark when they prepared to perform the insemination procedure. She noticed the instant stillness in my body. “What is it?”

Scott knelt at my knees.  
“Liam?”

“The…” I shut my eyes. I didn’t want to talk about a pair of anatomists preparing to squirt a syringe full of cum into my guts. Not to Scott’s Mom, not to _Scott._ “Just the gloves. Brings back reminders.”

A hand rubbed over my knee comfortingly and Melissa’s eyes grew concerned again.

“I have to keep them on, sweetheart. OH&S.”

I nodded.  
“It’s all right. I’ll be fine. Their gloves were green, anyway.”

She gave me a gentle smile, reaching out for my left arm and laying out the arm cuff underneath.

“I’ll be sure to remember that.”

I watched up on the bench while she wrapped the cuff around my bare bicep and peeled it closed with the velcro. She pressed a button on the machine and we waited while it slowly suffocated my arm.

“You don’t seem to be too far over.” She reported, unstrapping it and moving the device away. “You’re recovering quickly, it’s good. Now, are you right-handed?”

I shook my head, paling as the blood left my face.

“Left.” I almost croaked.

She moved over to the right side of me, Scott taking up residence on my left and leaning on the bench, putting a firm hand to my shoulder for support.

I reluctantly offered my right arm to her, my heart racing fearfully while she looked over the veins in the back of my hand, and then in the crook of my elbow. Her eyes scanned over them before she laid my arm flat on the bench surface. I grit my teeth.

“Breathe, Liam.” Scott reminded me softly with a rub to my shoulder. “It’ll be all right, Mom’s good. You’ll hardly feel it.”

“It helps to think about something that calms you.” His mother offered, rummaging through several shelves before returning with several plastic-packaged items. “Theo’s your mate, right? Think about him.”

Scott’s hand lifted from my shoulder to pull the hoodie up from my lap, offering it to my nose. I lowered my head and inhaled, feeling the nerves in my veins go funny when the fondness of Theo’s scent mixed with the power of the fear running through me. It didn’t quite register like it usually did, my mind running overtime while I remained aware of Melissa’s actions.

She tore open the plastic packages to unwrap a syringe and a fresh needle, assembling them together and making my lips turn numb with panic.

“Liam.” Scott brought my attention back. “Think of Theo. Catch his scent.”

“I can’t.” I breathed, watching with wide eyes while Melissa tied a band around my bicep to pop my veins. “Fuck, I can’t.”

My mind replayed the morning I first woke up in the Burnetts’ lab, the awful mixture of panic and horror I’d felt when Edith forced a needle into the back of my hand while terrifying me with the truth about my reason for being there. I remembered the countless hormone injections, the very sensation of having thick, cold fluids pressed through the cannula tube and forced into my bloodstream.

“ _No,”_ I shook my head at the memories. “ _No, nononono-“_

“Mom hold on, I’m losing him.”

I felt Scott’s hands on my cheeks, my lips having turned numb from the anxiety. My eyes were open but all I could see was a blur of white from the walls and the floor.

“Liam? Liam, you have to come back.”

_“You’re strong and determined creatures, you heal at unbelievable rates, you’re compassionate and protective over one another. Mark and I decided we wanted those traits engrained into our own children.”_

_“No…”_

“Liam! Liam, it’s just a memory, come back.”

_“So we experimented, tried to successfully fertilise several omegas. But their pregnancies failed; the wolves died of exhaustion. Their wombs couldn’t take the number of pups we wanted from them, so we knew we needed something stronger.”_

“ **Liam!** ”

I gasped, finally seeing.

Scott and Melissa were right there. Hands were on my face and my fingers were gripping the bench on either side of me while the breaths huffed and puffed out of me.

“I’m here.” I told them, shaking my head in exhaustion and letting my head fall back against the wall. “I’m here.”

“I don’t think he’s dealing with this, Scott.”

I heard him sigh, his hands finally leaving my cheeks while I breathed slow and deep.

“It’s not that… it’s because Theo’s not here.” His voice sounded tired, upset. “Theo’s like the other half of him, he grounds him. Without him it’s like Liam’s body is missing something – something important. It panics a lot easier.”

“It sounds like a very unhealthy _obsession.”_

“It’s mating, Mom. It’s blood bonding. You can’t understand properly unless you’re a wolf, but it’s just… it’s our way of commitment. It’s how we love.”

I lifted my head from the wall, reluctantly looking upon the two concerned faces before me. I reached down to bring Theo’s hoodie up to my face with my left hand, inhaling and exhaling before nodding to them.

“I’m okay. Do it.”

Melissa was worried, dubious.  
“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. Do it.”

Scott returned to my side and his hand lowered to my shoulder again. I kept inhaling and exhaling into Theo’s hoodie, this time focusing on the weight of the babies inside me as well. My phone vibrated with two messages in my pocket and I knew it was Theo feeling the second wave of panic from my new vision, but I left it, keeping my concentration on what parts of my mate I had to ground myself with.

An alcohol wipe was massaged over the inside of my arm, my heartrate picking up with anxiety, but I caught it with another deep inhalation of the scent in the hoodie.

“All right honey, make a fist for me.”

I did as Melissa instructed, closing my right hand into a fist and looking away when I saw her equip the needle from the bench. I turned my face into Scott’s chest, my breaths coming faster while he held my head to him.

There was a long moment where I waited, panting and gripping my own fingers tight in the fist I’d made for Scott’s Mom, until finally someone spoke.

“All right. Ready?”

I grit my teeth tight and butted my forehead further into Scott. I nodded stiffly.

I felt two gloved fingers take a gentle hold of my arm and flinched.

“Going to feel a slight sting in one… two… three.”

The breath rushed from my lungs when I felt the needle prick into my vein, trying my hardest not to let it take me back to when Edith pierced one into the back of my hand. I inhaled from Theo’s jumper deeply, in, out, in, out while the hand around my head stroked and the ache of my vein stung with the draw of my blood through the needle.

It lasted forever, my lungs starving for proper breaths as the seconds wore on and on. My eyes squeezed shut tighter when the ache turned into a bone-deep throb in my arm, a short noise of discomfort leaving my throat without my permission.

“Almost there, honey. Three, two… _good._ ”

The needle was finally taken out and my shoulders fell, my entire body losing its fight while a cotton ball was held firm over my vein. I lifted my head to look, feeling sick at the sight of the thick vial filled with my blood in Melissa’s hand.

Scott’s fingers raked my hair back for me.  
“You did well, Li.”

Melissa agreed with him, one-handedly screwing a cap onto the vial before tearing off some tape to fasten down the cotton ball to my arm.

“Very well. I can’t imagine what kind of memories were running through your head, but you kept yourself _here._ You should be very proud.”

I sighed, dropping back against the wall.  
“I feel like a nutcase, actually.”

“You _shouldn’t._ PTSD is an exceedingly harsh condition to deal with. _Adults_ only usually have to go through what you’re going through. For a seventeen year-old, you’re fighting it very fiercely.” She leant in to brush a soft finger down my cheek. “That’s something to be _proud_ of, honey. Not ashamed of.”

My eyes fluttered shut when she lowered an affectionate, motherly kiss to my forehead. Her fingers were so soft and tender, warm upon my skin and just enough to ignite a warmth inside me that I hadn’t felt for a very, very long time. It was a warmth from the deep recesses of my heart, the few fond memories I had of my own mother being all that kept it alive. Melissa indulged it, even if just for one minute.

I relaxed against the wall while she cleaned up after herself, watching her label the tube of my blood before sealing it in a ziplock bag and placing it on the desk next to the computer. She sat down and started clicking away, another vibration from my phone catching my attention.

I drew it out and opened the messages.

 _Theo:_ _I can feel you._  
        _: God this is fucking awful, please tell me you’re not having another attack._  
 _: Li?_

The poor guy was trying to work and instead he was feeling every wave of fear through our bond. I heaved a sigh and replied to him.

 _ Liam: _ _I got through it. I’m fine x_

 _ Theo: _ _Did you see another memory?_

 _ Liam: _ _Mm. When I woke up, when Edith put the needle in me._

 _ Theo: _ _Fuck. I feel like I should’ve been there, Li. Feeling you suffering without me is like I’m letting this torture you. I hate it.  
        : Are you still at the hospital? _

_ Liam: _ _Yeah, Mrs. McCall is just getting a couple of details from me before we go. Go back to work, Theo. I’m just fine, promise x_

 _ Theo: _ _So damn proud of you, baby. You’re so strong. I’ll see you in a couple of hours. xo_

 

Scott drove us straight back to mine and Theo’s apartment when we were done, avoiding driving near Stiles’s house at all on the way. He was quiet and tired, parking the Jeep on the curb at home with a deep sigh and killing the engine before running his hand over the wheel thoughtfully.

I knew his mind was one massive hurricane of thoughts, most of it occupied by Stiles, Derek and myself. I hated that I was a contributing factor to his stress, but he insisted that he wasn’t upset. When we got inside, he made me sit down in the lounge room to relax on the sofa while he made me something for lunch to get my energy back up. His Mom had advised that I eat well after the blood test and the episodes. Said my body needed the nutrition.

My hand healed at last, the bruise finally fading away after the fourth hour since my injury. Scott and I were tired and lethargic from the dramatic events of the morning, laying against one another on the couch with the TV on playing some random Netflix original just to distract us from our own realities. But of course one of the main characters got pregnant, and the dialogue just _had_ to include pregnancy questions that I realised I’d never even asked myself. Scott could feel that it bothered me and so he lifted the remote and skipped to the next best show on the suggestions list.

He lifted his head fifteen minutes later, nudging at me softly.

“Hey?”

I turned.  
“Hey.”

He hesitated for a moment before allowing himself to let the words out.

“Have you guys actually thought about all of it? Ideas about the genders, names, shopping for cots and stuff… their _due date?_ ”

I couldn’t help the awful feeling of dread that rolled over me just to think about it all.

“No…” I whispered, because we _hadn’t_.

Theo and I hadn’t thought of any of that, not yet. We’d only just started getting comfortable with the idea of researching about their growth. Researching was level one, and picking out names and baby furniture was like… level three billion.

I swore under my breath and put a palm over my eyes when the stress coursed through me.

“Fuck, I don’t know what to _do_ , Scott.” I huffed. “It’s _hard._ We’re so new to this and it’s such a touchy subject. I mean we want the babies and all and Theo is actually really excited about them, but we’re still shy about it. We aren’t the kind of couple to just be _normal_ about this, neither of us would ever jump for joy and plan a baby shower or throw a gender reveal party or plan an entire fucking _nursery_ and pick out fucking _names_ and _booties_ and _beanies_ and _baby outfits-”_

“Liam, that’s understandable.” Scott interrupted soothingly. “You and Theo are different to everyone else, you two go a lot deeper. You’ve both had difficult pasts and it’s obviously come as a massive shock to you that you’re going to be parents. It’s not meant to be possible for you, it’s been such a huge thing to get used to. That kind of acceptance doesn’t come overnight.”

“It’s just so hard,” I shook my head. “Because I want to love them. I _want_ to be happy about this but it’s like something inside me just keeps holding me back like I’m scared of them.”

“It’s because you’re recovering from so much _stress._ You were trapped inside a room, chained to a bed and separated from your mate for a month. You were terrified and you had nothing but your own thoughts to keep you company – frightened thoughts that convinced you that being pregnant with those twins was going to cost you _Theo._ Coming back from trauma like that and changing the way you feel about that is going to take time.”

“But I haven’t _got_ time, Scott.” I murmured wistfully. “At the rate these babies are growing, I’m not even sure I’ll make it to graduation before they’re ready to come. And it terrifies me because I’m _not_ _ready._ ”

Scott rolled over, repositioning himself on the sofa so he could look me in the eyes.

“This is _nature,_ okay? Reproduction is all nature. Things happen because you’re ready and because the timing is right, and things are prevented when you’re _not_ ready.” His brows lifted emphatically, his expression positive and gentle. “If you’re not ready for them to come, they won’t, Liam. They will stay in there until everything is just right. I bet you they’ll wait until the very minute that you’re prepared to handle it. You won’t even know it, but they will. It’ll all work out just fine.”

I blinked back at him, my brows worried.  
“Do you honestly think so?”

He nodded confidently.  
“Absolutely. Let yourself relax, Liam.”

I plopped my head back against the cushions, taking a deep breath and letting it blow out.

“I’m still stressed, though. It’s like my head is literally this huge mess of all these things I need to do or remember and it’s overwhelming me. I don’t have a clue where to start or how to handle it.”

A soft smile spread over my alpha’s lips and he shrugged simply.

“Write it down.”

I blinked. _Why didn’t I think of that?_

“Just write it all down, make a list. It puts things in perspective, lays everything out for you so it isn’t so chaotic inside your head – and it gives you something to cross off, one item at a time. It’s a rewarding feeling, slowly working your way through something like that.”

I shook my head in disbelief, almost laughing at myself.

“Of course.” I reached over to close a grateful hand over my alpha’s wrist. “You’re amazing sometimes, you know?”

He grinned, putting a hand over his heart in fake angst.

“ _Sometimes?_ Come on, Liam.”

He made me laugh a little. I scooted up into a sitting position and looked around the room.

“I need a notepad…” I tried to stand up, struggling to even get my feet flat on the floor before Scott pushed me back down.

He smiled down at me with amusement at my physical incapability, tilting his head.

“How about _I_ get one. Where do I look?”

I rolled my eyes at him, pointing down the hallway with a lazy flourish of my hand.

“In my room, on the study desk.” I directed him as he left to search. “Where do I even start? There are so many things.”

He returned with one of my notebooks, sinking down onto the sofa beside me and shrugging his shoulders.

“Wherever. Take one from your mind and just keep writing them down until it feels like you’ve got them all. If you miss something, just add it later.”

I twirled the pen in my fingers, flexing them experimentally to check that the pain from my knuckle wouldn’t come back. My eyes roamed over the blank lines on the page.

“So, what’s the first thing you think of?” Scott prompted, watching me.

I bit my lip and lowered the pen to the page, labelling the list upon the top in capital letters, _shit to do._

I inscribed a number one and entered the first item: _Translucency scan._

After that, they all started coming. I wrote one after the other, the tasks including things like _go back to school, step down as co-captain from lacrosse, start assignments, survive past Christmas time._

They came almost in chronological order, which helped while it lasted. But then the baby things started coming and they all ended up in a jumble on the page.

_Buy bigger clothes. Baby names. Buy baby clothes. Buy baby furniture. Babies’ room. Find out due date. Find out the genders. Research growth. Research trueblood betas in general. Learn how to be a parent. GRADUATE. Don’t kill yourself._

I took a deep breath and sighed down over the page, stress bubbling around irritatingly inside me at the negative turn the list had taken. This was meant to be something to _relieve_ the stress and I was turning it into a pity-party.

I leaned sideways into Scott, my head colliding with his shoulder while I _hmph_ ed. He reached out and took the notebook from me, his eyes scanning over the brief list of tasks I’d assigned for myself.

“Hey, it’s a good start.” He offered helpfully. “That last one could do with a thick line through the middle, but it’s something to work on. You can add to it later, when you have assignments and stuff. It’ll help.”

I opened my mouth to slur a depressed answer, but I was cut off by surprise when the front door opened behind us. I whipped around, my eyes settling on Theo immediately as he pushed it shut and made an instant move in my direction.

Relief started flooding through me just to see him in person, the exaggerated stress caused by my list-making blowing away and helping me to realise just how stupid I’d been without him with me.

Scott turned to see him too, a welcoming smile on his face when Theo rounded the couch. My mate ducked down and forced his arms down under my butt. His muscles swelled and he lifted me right up off the couch, holding me close to him and turning to plop himself down in my place with me on top of him.

I clung to him, my face burying into his throat while I settled upon his lap. His arms held me nice and tight and I even felt the babies flutter slightly in happiness at his presence. Everything I’d been stressed about ran away screaming now that Theo was with me and the relief was so damn welcome in my muscles and my mind.

“Are you okay?” He asked into my shoulder, his voice low and affectionate in my ears.

He leaned back and looked over my face, his eyes trailing down my body to find the cotton ball taped to my arm. His hand cupped my elbow, a thumb brushing over the tender skin below the needle site.

I nodded, my arms secure around his shoulders while he leaned his forehead against mine.

“Yeah.” I reassured him softly, nuzzling right back against him. “I’m fine.”

He lifted his chin to kiss me, his lips pressing firm pecks and sucks onto my own in relief while our bodies reconnected from the day spent apart. It was like my limbs started to tell him the story of my day because somehow he _knew_ , leaning away and looking down to bring my left hand up to eye level.

The hazel orbs inspected my knuckles, a thumb brushing over them with concern.

“What happened?” He whispered, looking from me to Scott in confusion. “I felt it today, you _broke_ your hand.”

My mouth hung open as I prepared to explain, wishing with everything I had that he wouldn’t freak the hell out. I glanced to Scott, finding his eyes already on me evenly. He gave me the softest of nods, knowing Theo needed to know. I was his mate.

“We had a really big morning.” I explained slowly, grimacing when Theo’s hazels bore into mine worriedly. “Uh… promise you won’t get mad?”

His expression changed, exasperation crying from his features.

“ _God,_ Liam, is it really that bad?” He turned to stare at Scott. “You were meant to be keeping him _safe.”_

“He did,” I brought his glare away from Scott, turning his face back to me. “Well, _kind of_ , he kept me as safe as he could. Just promise me you won’t burn the house down. Please.”

He sighed, shaking his head in dismissal.  
“Yeah, all right. I promise. What the hell happened?”

I took a deep breath, preparing myself.

“So Scott called his Mom about organising for me to go get that scan, yeah? And she told him I needed to get a blood test done before I went for it, so we had to go meet her at the hospital. But Scott only took the bike here and he had to go get Stiles’s Jeep, and he wanted me to stay here while he did that but I knew you’d kill him if you learned that he left me home alone.”

Theo’s brows lifted warningly.  
“You weren’t _wrong.”_

“So… I kinda went _with him_. On the bike.”

The hazel eyes before me turned darker and widened with immediate alarm, Theo’s mouth opening for a string of curses to fly out but I put a hand over him to prevent them.

“It was _fine,_ I survived. That wasn’t how I broke my hand, Scott drove really safe, I promise.”

He shook his head slowly and I could feel the pounding of his heart while I basically gave him a heart attack. I patted over his chest, trying to soothe the frantic pulsing while I continued.

“When we got to Stiles’s house… well, _Derek_ was there.” I swallowed at the confused frown that fell over Theo’s brow, looking over to Scott to double check with him that he wanted me to talk about this. He nodded at me. “He and Stiles… they’re sleeping together.”

“ _What?”_

I nodded to confirm.

“We walked in on it and it was _frightening_ to say the least, but Scott just squeezed my hand too hard and my knuckle kind of broke-”

“ _Kind of_ broke?”

I grimaced, nodding. He looked to Scott angrily – the poor thing was on a rollercoaster of outraged emotions.

“So _you_ broke his hand?”

My hands pressed harder against his chest.  
“It was an accident, Theo, he didn’t mean to. He healed me straight after and it’s _fine. I’m_ fine. You promised you wouldn’t get mad.”

“I’m not _mad,_ I’m just… Li, you could’ve been badly hurt. Walking in on Stiles and Derek like that, Derek could’ve done anything. The babies-”

“That’s why Scott went upstairs with me.” I reassured him softly. “He saw what he saw just to make sure I didn’t go up alone, to make sure I was safe.”

Slowly, Theo started to deflate. He sat back against the sofa and nodded in submission, taking a deep breath to calm the instinctive urges inside him screaming to protect me and beat someone’s ass for my injury. His hand curled around mine and he lifted it to his lips, pressing several kisses over my mended knuckles before pulling me close and laying my head upon his chest.

The TV played in the background around us while he sat and processed the day, letting his body reassure itself that I was with him and unhurt. That I was safe.

Our wolves calmed down together and eventually he turned to Scott, reaching out a leg to nudge at the alpha’s knee.

“Hey.”

Scott looked up, the brown of his eyes deep with his brooding mood.

“Are you all right?” Theo asked him with an inquisitive tilt of his head. “Must’ve been hard to see Stiles that way.”

Scott shook his head, looking away and flopping back against the sofa while the emotions in his heart ran rampant.

“I don’t even know. I have no idea what to think or feel, I just keep _seeing_ them together and…” He shook his head again, as though to shake away the idea. “I just need time. Need a distraction.”

I felt Theo smile, his chest closing in upon me as he leaned forward towards the coffee table. He half-squished me before finally closing his hands over the Xbox controllers, tossing one to Scott with a supportive smirk.

He exited the Netflix app and put on a game of Gears of War.

“Let’s distract you, then.”

I smiled into his chest, letting my head tilt up for my lips to graze over his jawline in a silent praise, letting our bond tell him I was proud of him for being so nice to Scott. I knew they’d formed some kind of closer relationship over the time they’d been searching for me when I was with the Burnetts, but now that I could see it for real I wanted to _tell_ him that he was being an incredible support to Scott. No one had told him he was a great friend, no one even thanked him for being kind – and he needed it. He deserved it. 

I sat curled up against his chest on his lap, watching while he and Scott fought and blew up monsters together on the TV screen. They played for hours without growing bored. Scott’s phone rang a few times but he left it to vibrate on the coffee table, knowing it was Stiles and not wanting to talk. Theo kept him distracted very effectively and even set an extra place for him at the table when we finished cooking dinner together.

After the dishes were taken care of, we returned to the sofa and I laid between my mate and my alpha while Scott showed Theo tutorials for some game they were both interested in. I was drowsy and snug between them, the heat from both of their bodies encasing me and making me feel relaxed enough to draw out the stress from the shitty day I’d had. I looked down over the babies where they popped up underneath my t-shirt, watching the roundness rise and fall as I breathed and let myself think about everything for the first time since waking up this morning.

Our babies were _growing._ I couldn’t ignore it and I couldn’t exactly bring myself to _hate_ it, either. My belly felt so full already and I was really starting to feel it when I stood up, that pressure when the weight of them bore down between my hipbones. I noticed this morning that it had even been a little hard to get comfortable in bed. I could definitely not sleep on my stomach anymore and when I laid on my side, I had to bring a knee up to support the weight of my hips so I didn’t squish the babies in my sleep.

After the day I had, being on my feet more than usual since coming home, I could feel my back just starting to grow sore. I felt extremely exhausted and kept double-checking to make sure my ankles hadn’t started swelling, because that was just one extra embarrassing thing about being pregnant that I didn’t want to experience.

I felt a little nauseous after my dinner, but a cube of ice to crunch on had settled the sickness right down. That was something cool I’d found – cold liquids _helped_. At first I started off just sucking on ice, but then I told Theo about it and he had suggested ice pops. So over the past week we’d had a box of those handy in the freezer at all times. Even lemonade or a frozen drink from McDonald’s or 7Eleven would do the trick.

There were all these new little things I was discovering, little facts and quirks to help make me more comfortable while the babies changed my body and made me sick from the rampant hormones. Theo and I were slowly learning.

I couldn’t help but feel like Scott had been right in saying that the babies would wait to come until I was ready. I’d been so afraid this morning when I woke up to find that they’d grown, but maybe my alpha’s words had some truth to them and I could relax without fearing I'd wake up Christmas morning full-term with a wet puddle in the bedsheets beneath me. And now that Theo was home and I was thinking rationally, I concluded that Scott’s idea of writing a list really _was_ a good idea.

It stayed on my mind all night, my brain just running over the things I’d already written down and what I could’ve missed. Even after Scott finally left to take Stiles’s Jeep back close to nine p.m.

Theo noticed I was distracted, dropping down into the bed beside me after brushing his teeth and nuzzling into my side to look over my shoulder at what I was reading.

“What’s up, Li?” He murmured with a kiss to my skin. “You’ve been quiet all night. Is it _this?”_

I leant my head against his, nodding while his eyes scanned over the list on my belly.

“Scott told me to write a list of all the things on my mind, things I know we need to get done.” I explained softly. “Just to help get it out, to have something to cross off when we do it, you know?”

He nodded upon my shoulder, his eyes concentrated and light while he read. I watched as he moved over the entries _baby names, baby clothes, baby furniture, babies’ room, find out due date, find out the genders._

I waited for him to put his walls up. I waited for his expression to shift, for his eyes to harden and his muscles to stiffen. But they didn’t.

Instead he nodded, reaching a finger down to brush over my handwriting where I’d written, _don’t kill yourself._

“Cross that one off.”

I smiled just slightly, uncapping my pen and reaching down to scribble out task number sixteen. We both laid there staring at the page before my eyes lingered upon number two: _step down as co-captain from lacrosse._

It was like Theo knew when the misery filled my chest. The bastard always knew.

He reached up to smooth a hand over the babies inside me, causing a warm flutter in my heart.

“I know you’re going to miss it.” He whispered softly. “It was your life when you needed something to control your emotions. You loved it, you were good at it.”

I took a deep breath, nodding sadly.

“I’ve got other things to calm me down now.” I tilted my head up to look at him. “Got the pack, got you. Got the babies.”

He smiled softly when I included them, his thumb stroking over my belly supportively. I was surprised to realise that it felt _good,_ that my body liked the pressure of his touch right there. It was a new feeling, one that almost ran straight to my groin.

“Besides, I’m good at other things.” I shrugged, looking away to avoid the blush threatening to rise in my cheeks. “Good at _history._ And physics.”

Theo saw right through me, his fingers all standing up to join his thumb upon the surface of my belly. They all scratched and stroked and tickled, rising goosebumps in my arms and causing more flutters in my chest. He smirked and pressed a kiss to the burn in my cheeks, humming to agree with my claims.

“And you’re good at being really fucking beautiful.” He added gently, pressing closer and pausing his assault on the babies to take my notebook and toss it onto the bedside table. “And scaring the shit out of me. _Very_ good at that.”

I let myself grin, rolling my eyes at him when he lifted himself to crawl over my body, settling between my thighs and lowering his nose to mine. He let them touch, only just, his hair falling onto my forehead while he stared down at me tenderly. I reached up to touch him, feeling the beauty of his face under my fingertips while I drew him down slowly for a kiss.

I was in total bliss underneath him, so warm and comfortable and ready to let him do whatever he wanted to. He was my home, my mate. My anchor.

My knees lifted and my feet slid up the mattress to cradle him between, relaxing my body and smiling against his lips when his hands trailed downwards. He rose to watch me from above, those eyes swirling with my favourite green before he dropped another kiss to my lips and continued on his way.

I let him slide down, the tip of his nose tickling against my jaw and drawing down the column of my throat with just enough pressure to elicit a soft breath from my lips. He pressed kiss after kiss over my collarbones and drew them over my chest, down to my right pec and eventually over my nipple – and something zapped me. I jolted underneath him, sucking in my breath and letting out a surprised cry as the touch of his lips to my nipple caused electric shocks to spark inside my nerve endings and send me dizzy.

He lifted his head quickly.  
“What? What was that?”

My mouth hung open and I stared down at him in shock.

“My nipple, it’s super sensitive. I’ve never had that before…”

His eyes seemed to sparkle with a little touch of evil, a brow lifting before the smirk fell over his lips.

“Sensitive?” He repeated, leaning back down. “Did it _hurt?_ ”

I shook my head dumbly, still leaning up on my elbows and watching him as he preyed on me.

“No.”

His teeth showed.  
“Good.”

His tongue lowered to the hardened bud of my nipple, overwhelming it with quick flicks and swirls to send all the air rushing from my lungs. I fell back against the pillows, gritting my teeth when the tingles and shocks returned to my fingertips. He tortured the bud with the tip of that tongue and deliberately blew short breaths over it, just to watch the way my brows cried with desperation when the air caught it.

Then he tortured the other one, sending my limbs trembling with restraint before he just let himself devour me, opening his jaw and grazing his teeth over the nipples before sucking them into his mouth and enjoying them fiercely, one at a time. He drove me to insanity, and just with the sensitivity caused by my hormones. Soon he had me in a panting mess below him, finally lifting his head to admire his work on me.

I reached up for his face, driven by the tingles in my blood as they begged for him and by the gorgeous green in his eyes when he smiled down upon me.

“I hate you,” I breathed as he came down closer under my fingertips.

He grinned, nudging his nose to mine before pressing a swollen kiss to my lips.

“You love me.” He argued, crawling back down my body again. “You love me so much.”

My hands followed his head, staying in his hair to stroke through it affectionately.

“Yes I do.”

The flash of his eyes at my response came gently, and he stared with a brush of his fingers to my heart before he moved. He was silently warning me, asking me for permission for something. I didn’t know what it was, but I nodded softly anyway. I trusted him.

The green eyes blinked lovingly before his lashes lowered. His head dipped down before me and I watched with frozen lungs as he held himself over my belly.

Theo’s lips parted, pressed down over the highest point of the swell, and he kissed the babies gently.

He _kissed my belly_. For the first time ever.

My body turned into one lump of shocked bones and nerves, my heart exploding and my breaths rushing as the emotions rolled over me one by one. I vaguely felt wetness running down my cheeks just at the sight, the dark fan of his lashes over his cheeks and the brunette brush of his hair upon my belly while he pressed his lips to the babies over and over again.

He looked so fucking beautiful. So gentle.

My hands fisted in his hair and I started to cry.  
_“Theo.”_

The last kiss pressed down and he lifted his eyes to mine, the incredible smile spreading over his lips when he saw the happiness pouring out of me. It poured from him, too, every pore in his skin shining with the radiance of his love for me, for the babies in my belly.

_He loves them. He loves them so fucking much._

He came up to me, moving up my body and letting his fingers capture my tears while I wrapped around him as tight as I could. He hugged me right back, the press of his lips to my forehead torturing my poor heart even more with another eruption of love and affection for him. He just kept on overwhelming me, kept finding ways to make me love him even deeper than before. Every time we thought we couldn’t possibly grow any closer, he’d find a way.

“You love them,” I tried not to sob while I held him. “You love _us,_ and I love _you. Theo.”_

It barely made any sense but he understood, pulling back to find my eyes with an elated nod while he wiped more of my tears.

“Of course I do, Li. I always will, I promise. I’m yours.”

I leaned up to kiss him once more, our lips wet from my tears before I pulled back and reached down for his hips.

“Move up here.”

His expression made way for a little shock, his eyes widening slightly while I pulled him up my body by his waist.

“What?”

I glanced up, blowing the hair from my eyes.

“I need to try this.” I told him on a breath. “I’ve never tried to make you feel good and I _want_ to. I need to.”

It came to him where I wanted him to move and what I was doing tugging up on his hips and he froze, watching me with the brightest eyes.

“You… you don’t _have to-_ ”

I lifted my brows insistently.  
“I _want to._ I know I’ve never done it before but you can teach me. Please.”

His expression warned me softly.  
“It’s different, Li. It takes a bit of getting used to.”

“I don’t care. Please.”

It took him a moment to decide, the hesitancy passing over his face before he leaned down to kiss me softly. He brushed a tender hand over my cheek before following the tug of my hands, crawling up my chest while I shimmied down the mattress to meet his hips.

I took hold of his girth, letting myself really look at it for the first time. His dick was beautiful, flushed slightly pink and fat with his arousal in my hand. The head was full and ready to go, a generous dribble of precum threatening to drip from his slit. He was big and thicker than I ever realised, the skin burning hot against my fingertips and radiating heat when I lifted my head to get closer.

His heart was racing and I could feel him watching me from between his arms as he held himself up. His breaths were forced to remain slow and I tipped my head back to look at him.

I gave him a soft smile before looking back down, lifting my head to bury my face into the crease of his thigh. The power of his scent from the glands was incredible, seeping right into my body and filling every part of me up with warmth and fondness. I heard his breath hitch when I pressed a kiss to the gland, the soft stubble on my jaw grazing along his skin and making him shiver.

Finally, I gave his cock a squeeze in my palm and touched my lips to the head, closing around it and sucking gently to tease all the precum out and onto my tongue. His arms shook above me and a breath shuddered from his chest when I pulled back, licking my lips and biting them to help them swell. I lifted my free hand up to smooth over the flat of his abs, reassuring him and feeling the heat of his skin before I swallowed my nerves and brought my lips back to his cock. I let the length of it slowly into my mouth, opening my jaw up and letting it in further and further. He was right, it felt different. It was slightly intimidating but I reminded myself that it was _Theo._ So I sucked.

It tasted like _him_ , hot and smooth and pulsing in my hand like I held the key to his destruction in my palm. I had the power to unravel him, make him come undone, and he trusted me with it. I let it deeper into my throat, reminding myself to breathe before closing my eyes and opening up for him.

“ _Li!”_

My name hissed from his lips and his abs clenched upon my fingers when my nose touched to his belly, every inch of him down my throat. I could feel his heartbeat against my tongue.

I held my breath, pleased when my gag reflex failed to expel the thickness. So I experimented, sucking and pulling back a few inches to breathe before letting him right back down again. It was the most interesting feeling, having my throat so full with him. His taste was on my tongue and running down into my stomach and I _liked it._

“Fuck, Li you need to breathe…”

I opened my eyes to look up at him, catching his gaze before glaring in cheekiness and shaking my head softly. I swallowed around him, letting my throat constrict and squeeze at his shaft before letting a low hum vibrate up and against the head.

His fists clenched in the bedsheets and a cry left his mouth, his hips involuntarily fucking down into my throat before I could surface to get air. I pushed on his hips, letting all eight inches of him withdraw from my mouth while the gasp sucked into my lungs with desperation. He crawled back down my body and took my face in his hands, shaking his head at me with equal parts shock and astonishment.

“You’re not supposed to choke yourself with it,” He scolded me with a laugh, wiping the tears of strain from the corners of my eyes. “No more until you learn to control that throat.”

I accepted the kiss he lowered to my lips, letting him taste himself on my tongue before opening my legs around him and shifting my hips until I could feel the wet press of his cock against my hole.

“You liked it, though.” I breathed, holding onto his shoulders when he picked me up and slid me back up to the pillows.

He huffed down at me with a smirk, leaning back on his heels and rubbing a thumb against my hole in a torturous caress. I shivered before him.

“I did, but not if you’re going to pass out from asphyxiation. And not if I’m going to cum down your damn throat after only thirty seconds.”

I grinned at that, the very words that admitted to me that it was _good._ That I’d nearly busted his nut just after one minute. He caught the self-satisfaction on my lips and pounced on it.

“Don’t let it get to your head.” He warned me, slapping his thickness against me before thumbing the head in. He earned a gasp from my chest, smirking. “I can easily ruin you just as fast.”

I swallowed when he leaned back between my thighs, lowering his chest over mine and touching our noses with a deep slide of his cock right into me under his weight. My body quaked, the desperate moan echoing into the bedroom while he proved his point. I gasped and held onto him, touching his face and gripping onto his shoulders to remind myself which planet I was on.

“Okay, okay,” I panted when his hips started to roll. “I believe you.”

The grin he gave me before leaning down for a kiss was beautiful.

“Good. You ready?”

I nodded against his forehead, taking a moment to catch my breath and prepare myself for the onslaught of pleasure he was about to kill us with. He waited patiently, soft strokes of his fingers in my hair knowingly soothing my heartrate.

“Yeah. Okay, let’s go.”

“Yeah?”

My eyes fluttered shut when he started to fuck.

“ _Yeah._ ”


	22. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

_“Fuckfuckfuck, yes! Derek, harder! Harder, right there! Ngh!”_

Theo stood in disbelief beside me, his brows lifting and his jaw opening behind his lips at the scene playing out before us. We were inside my memories; I was showing him yesterday’s drama one event at a time, while our real bodies lay nestled together under the sheets in his bed at home.

_“Yes! Yes! God, I love your cock, yes!”_

“Oh, my.” My mate muttered, drawing me closer into his side and watching while Derek lifted his head in alarm.

He and Stiles turned at once, their heads whipping around to spot Scott and I from my memory, the _real_ me standing invisible on the sidelines with Theo. We were merely witnesses, watching while the past played out before us.

The tears filled Stiles’s eyes again, just as they had done yesterday.

“Scott,” He begged once more, trembling violently from the aftershock of Derek’s powerful assault on his body. “Scott, please, I can explain, I-”

“How exactly does he think he can _explain?_ ” Theo questioned while the stiff conversation continued. “God, this is like finding your parents in a threesome with the next door neighbour -”

“ _Theo.”_

“- there _is_ no explanation for that. Scott’s got to be in ruins.”

I shrugged softly, watching as Scott stormed out from the doorway and towards the staircase. When we didn’t follow, the room turned to dust around us. We stood in limbo together, white mist swirling around us and holding us up on a floor made of clouds and smoke.

“He isn’t mad with them, I think deep down he’s happy.” I watched my fingers as they stroked across Theo’s bare chest. “He’s just shocked. A little upset that they tried to hide it.”

Theo nodded softly, watching down over my face and looking at the mist around us before tucking my hair behind my ear.

“Can you show me the hospital?”

I looked up, uncertain and slightly afraid.  
“I…”

His eyes shone down at me, asking gently.  
“I’m right here with you, Li. Nothing’s going to hurt you.”

He was right. Even though it was a memory and reliving it could frighten me, I would have him there with me this time. His absence was the reason I _had_ the episodes. My body was broken without him, but now we were together. I could handle it.

I closed my eyes and nodded, laying my head over his chest and concentrating while the hospital carpark started to form around us. I took us back to the moment Scott had parked the Jeep after seeing everything inside Stiles’s house. Theo and I stood by and watched while he swung his door open, moving quickly to get out before my hand had closed over his wrist. My voice could be heard, fretful and faint as I asked him to support me through the memories I knew would attack me upon entering the hospital.

We followed Scott and the memory _me_ , Theo’s hand closing over mine supportively and drawing me into his side as the doors opened for us. I held onto him when the memory me slowed to a quick stop, Scott leaving him behind for a few steps before noticing he’d gone into shock. It was difficult to watch, Theo pulling me around and in front of the memory me to see his face while he stared ahead at the elevators.

“Were you seeing the last fight?” He asked while my memory’s face paled, and I nodded. His hand tightened around mine and I could hear the remorse pounding apologetically in his chest. “I should’ve fucking been there. Look at you.”

Memory me just kept staring, his breaths starting to panic and constrict while Scott tried to get his attention and bring him back. Melissa came running from down the corridor when his legs gave out, and Theo tensed beside me when Liam fell back against the waiting chairs and crashed to the ground.

His entire body jolted beside me, every nerve in his system telling him to duck down to help me. But it was a dream and we both knew it. He stopped himself, instead wrapping his arms around my shoulders and pulling me into his chest to reassure himself I was okay while his eyes watched down on the scene in pain.

“Liam?! Liam, sweetheart, you need to come back.”

“Scott… I… _I can’t breathe!”_

I shut my eyes, no longer wanting to watch while memory me choked and gasped on the ground. I never realised how bad it had been. I looked sick, so panicked and awful and if I concentrated hard enough, I could feel the way the babies had squirmed inside me.

“You never told me you collapsed.” Theo’s voice was muffled by my hair. His eyes were tight shut above my head and I let him hug me to him. “I should’ve been there.”

My hands held his back, stroking up and down over his spine and shoulder blades while he processed the scene. I could feel the guilt coursing through his veins.

“You needed to be at work.” I reassured him into his skin. “I got through it just fine, I’m all right now. I’m here, I’m with you.”

He still shook his head, looking up when Scott helped memory me to stand.

“Are you sure you’re still okay to do this?” He’d asked, and memory me nodded.

“Yeah, I’m good.”

Theo took a deep breath, turning to follow as Melissa led Scott and Liam down the hallway. He kept an arm around my side, holding me against him when we moved into the tiny white room that had terrified me so much. He never let my body leave his side, grounding himself with the real me in order to get through the memory without panicking.

“You really need to stop being so stubborn.” He told me into my ear. “It’s going to land you in a psych ward if you’re not careful – you clearly weren’t okay to go ahead with this.”

“I know.” I hummed softly, hugging around his chest in the doorway while the scene unfolded in front of us. “But I needed the blood test for the babies. I did it for them.”

“Take a seat, honey.” Melissa cooed through the room. “I’ll need you to take your jumper off for me.”

Liam complied, pulling the black hoodie over his head and balling it up in his lap. He sat back against the wall and his eyes flared bright with panic at his surroundings. He looked down over the babies while they protruded under the borrowed t-shirt, his breaths shallow and nervous.

“You were fucking terrified.” Theo whispered above me.

We stood and watched.

Theo managed to get through the entire second episode without rushing forwards to try and help the memory me while he hyperventilated and panicked in his seat. He held onto me and huffed through his raging instincts, convincing himself that I was right next to him instead of on that seat with my head buried into Scott’s chest while Melissa McCall pierced my vein with a needle and drew an entire vial’s worth out.

We woke from my memories with soft jolts in the bed, Theo turning onto his side immediately so he could pull me into his chest.

“Fucking hell, Li.” He breathed into my shoulder. His fingers swayed over the bare skin of my back and he buried himself closer into me. “Please don’t ever do that without me again. Promise me you’ll take me with you.”

“I promise.” I nodded, closing my eyes against his chest and breathing him in deep. “I’m sorry. I just didn’t want you to have to leave work again.”

“We have _four million dollars_ in our savings account, Liam. I’m only working because they asked me to.”

He rolled towards me, pushing me onto my back so he could shimmy down the mattress and wrap an arm around the babies, resting his cheek upon the steadily swelling surface. He looked so beautiful down there, that face against my skin. He looked like he belonged there, wrapped around my belly and resting against it gently.

He knew it, too. He knew what the sight did to my heart. His fingers stroked over my skin in a silent gesture of _I love you, baby._

Those green eyes watched up at me comfortingly.  
“Are you ready for today?”

I knew he was talking about going in to get the translucency scan. Truth was, he knew how I felt – he was only asking to give me an opportunity to talk about it. He cared so much about my recovery, he knew that opening up was the only way to help with the PTSD as much as possible.

I reached down, threading my fingers through his hair and feeling my heart squeeze for him. _I love you too, Theo._

“Part of me is terrified to go back there.” I admitted softly. “Just the thought of spending an hour trapped on a hospital bed with a probe digging into my stomach makes me want to be sick.”

He nodded against my belly, his fingers stroking over my skin beside his head.

“And the other part of you?”

I took a deep breath, his hair so soft in my fingers.

“The other part of me knows I’ll be just fine this time, because I’ll have you right there with me.”

His lips turned up against my skin and he nodded softly under my fingers. He reached up to touch my face.

“Exactly.” He reassured me. I leaned into his touch, letting his thumb brush over my lips. “I’ll never leave your side, Li. I promise.”

I put my arms out, needing to feel him close again.

“Come here.”

He crawled up my body for a hug, wrapping his arms around me and holding me against his skin under the bedsheets. The warmth we shared together was hot and toasty amid the chilling winter morning air that seeped through the walls. It was just right, so perfect.

“Do you know if you need to do anything before the scan?” He murmured against my throat, dropping a tender kiss to my scent gland. “Hold your pee or whatever?”

I gave a short laugh, shaking my head.  
“No, Melissa said I shouldn’t have to. The babies seem big enough to be visible without lifting my uterus up, and I’m glad. I can’t imagine laying in there for an entire hour with a bursting bladder without peeing myself.”

“Definitely not.” He hummed, tilting his head back to tip my chin up. His eyes found mine and we stared. “I’m so proud of you, you know.”

I blinked, my skin warm and tingling under his fingertips.

“What for?”

“For trying so hard to stay calm about the babies. Trying to love them. I can feel the panic in your veins every time you think about them, but you fight it away so quickly.” He let himself smile softly with a nudge of his nose to mine. “You’ve become so much stronger than the trauma, it’s become habit for you to tell yourself that you’re allowed to love them – because they’re not going to ruin you. Because they didn’t drive me away like you thought, not in the slightest. I’m so damn proud of you for that.”

I couldn’t help but smile back at him when his words touched my heart. I leaned against his lips and kissed him, letting the warmth from his body around mine sink into my very bones.

“I’ve been trying so hard.” I whispered between kisses, touching his face. “It just scares me when they grow like they have been. I’ve been afraid that they’ll come too soon but… something Scott said helped to change the way I saw it.”

“What did he say?” He urged me with a kiss to my nose.

“He said this was all nature. That things happen because the timing is right and we’re ready, and that things are also prevented when we’re not ready. He’s confident that the babies will wait until we’re ready for them. Both of us.”

Theo smiled, nodding slowly.  
“I think he’s right. They won’t rush to come out, Li. When they come we’ll be more than ready for it.”

I closed my eyes and took a deep, fresh breath to relieve myself. The anxiety left my body and I could let myself relax. _We have time._  

My mate hugged me to his chest, comfort and security swirling around me like a protective bubble while he shielded me from all the negative thoughts and feelings. It was one of the most alleviating sensations, being able to finally tell myself that we still had time and this wasn’t nearly as scary a situation as I’d originally thought it to be. Theo was right here to support me whenever I needed him and he would _be_ there forever. I wasn’t doing this alone.

I’d almost drifted back off to sleep, feeling more relaxed than I’d felt in months, when the ding of Theo’s phone broke through our silence.

We groaned softly before he rolled onto his back, stretching out to grab the device and open the text message he’d received. His arm stayed snug around my shoulders, cuddling me to his chest while he read.

“It’s Scott.” He told me gently, his voice husky and heavy with sleep. “Just asking if we want him to be there this morning.”

“Of course,” I nodded, looking up to him. “If it’s okay with you.”

He nodded back, dropping a kiss to my forehead.

“Course it is.” He started typing a response to our alpha one-handedly. “Reckon he’s alright? About Stiles and all?”

I shrugged, stirring when he sent his message and rolled over to get up. We both got to our feet, my eyes drifting down over the babies when their weight shifted down inside me.

“I’m not sure; he doesn’t exactly show his feelings most of the time.” I answered distractedly, letting my fingers slowly trail down over the crown of my belly from above.

Theo rounded the bed to stand in front of me, the softest of smiles on his face while he watched me touching our babies on my own. His hands rose to tickle gently over either side of the bulge, a proud kiss pressing to my forehead before he took my hands and led me through to his bathroom.

“Gotta say, I definitely wasn’t expecting it.” He continued, wrenching the hot water on inside the shower while I tied my hair up with an elastic. “Derek just doesn’t seem like the bisexual type, you know?”

I nodded enthusiastically.  
“ _Yeah._ I know. But then neither does Stiles, it’s weird. I knew there was always some sort of tension between them but I never guessed it would turn into sex.”

We stepped under the water together, my eyes closing in bliss when the heat eased into my muscles. Theo’s fingers slid over my skin and he hugged himself to me from behind.

“When you were watching them,” He began. “Before they noticed you were there. Did it just feel like sex or could you tell it was something more?”

“Derek wouldn’t go gay for just _anyone,_ ” I reasoned, reaching for the shower gel and squirting some onto a wash puff. “I think there’s something serious between them. Something deep. Can werewolves mate a human?”

I felt him shake his head over my shoulder, his fingers swirling over the babies.

“Not properly. Stiles wouldn’t be able to bite him back. It would only be half complete.”

I stared into the tiles while he took over the scrubbing of our skin, the entire situation blossoming inside my head.

“Do you think he’ll ask Derek for the bite? Just so they can mate each other?”

We both knew how much mating meant to wolves. It was like finding their other halves and tying themselves to each other for eternity. It rarely happened under the age of eighteen, but Theo and I managed to find each other when I was sixteen. Only we hated each other for a year before we realised that there was undeniable electricity between us.

I couldn’t imagine not being able to tie myself to Theo. Mating each other had been impulsive, in the midst of sex on the full moon, but it was the best thing we’d ever done. The bond that resulted between us had completed us, tied our souls together and saved our lives. And it created two more inside me. I couldn’t imagine life without having been mated to Theo – it was just like we were meant to be this close all along.

I expected that if Derek felt the same way about Stiles, the inability to tie himself to his human would be soul-crushing. I wasn’t sure what it was like from Stiles’s point of view, but I knew that if it were me, I’d have had Theo turn me in seconds.

“I think he might.” I finally answered. I turned around to face him, reaching up to gently finger over his cheekbones under the water. I knew he could feel what I was feeling, the pure thankfulness that we’d been able to grow so close. “I love you.”

He smiled softly and nodded knowingly, leaning in to join our foreheads.

“And I love you. So much.” The smile broadened and we shared a wet kiss, breaking apart so he could look up over my hair. “And I actually really love when you tie your hair up. Do it more often?”

I grinned, sliding my fingers over his pecs and nodding with a half eye-roll.

“Okay. Just for you.”

To honour his request, I left it in its little bun when we got dressed and made our way out to the truck with granola bars between our teeth. We were almost running late, thanks to our tendency to stand and nuzzle against each other for too long in the shower.

Theo held my hand in his for the whole drive to the hospital, even taking it with him when he reached up to change gears. He knew I still felt a little anxious and that we were both expecting the possibility of another episode when I laid down on the examination bed. It was going to be uncomfortable and hard on my mentality, but if I just reminded myself that it would be Melissa and not Edith, I could calm down.

Scott’s bike was already there when we pulled in. I could see him leaning against the wall by the front doors waiting for us. It was obvious that he was only pretending to be on his phone, trying to distract himself while he waited for us to approach.

“Do you think it went badly when he took Stiles’s Jeep back last night?” Theo asked softly into my hair when we climbed down from the truck. “He never waits like this.”

Our fingers threaded together and I let myself grimace for him to see before we started navigating our way through the carpark.

“Maybe. I hope they didn’t fight.”

Our alpha looked up when we crossed to the entrance, a smile falling over his face while he pocketed his phone and stood up from against the wall.

“Hey,” He welcomed us, his eyes trying to smile with his mouth but not quite fooling me. I knew that slump of his shoulders, knew the glint in his eye when he was trying to hide something that’d been bothering him. “How are you guys? How are you feeling, Liam?”

Theo glanced down to me when I didn’t answer immediately, his eyes roaming over my face to try and figure out what I was thinking while I stared at Scott. He seemed to click to it, his fingers stroking over mine before he answered for us.

“We’re good, no sickness this morning.” He sounded so proud beside me, I wanted to kick him. “He’s getting really good at kicking the nausea.”

Scott nodded, pleased.  
“That’s awesome. Are you ready for the scan?”

“Scott.” I deadpanned, staring him in the face. “Just talk about it.”

Theo felt amused beside me. I could just feel him trying to suppress the smirk with a bite of his lip.

Surprise flitted over Scott’s face.  
“What? Talk about _what?”_

“You’re an awful liar. Even worse than me.”

My mate’s fingers tickled my own.  
“No one’s worse than you, Li.”

I shoved at him, albeit gently. He wasn’t wrong, but he still deserved a little punishment.

Scott looked away and his shoulders hiked with a deep sigh. His hands came out in surrender before dropping to his thighs, and he stepped back to lean against the wall once more.

“What do you want me to say?” He breathed, the defeat now flowing from his voice.

I pulled Theo with me as I stepped closer, looking upon the distressed alpha with pity.

“The truth. What happened with Stiles last night?”

He shook his head.  
“Nothing.”

I lifted a brow.

“Nothing?” I repeated in disbelief. “You had to return his car, give him back his keys-”

“I didn’t talk to him, okay?” His shoulders hitched up, stress darkening the brown of his eyes. “I… I dropped the keys in on the dinner table and left. I couldn’t see him. Just the thought of looking at him after he kept something like that from me… I just feel sick. He _cried,_ Liam. Stiles doesn’t cry. But he did when I found him, he fell apart and I _can’t see that._ Not again. Not _yet.”_

My alpha looked so vulnerable before me, slouched against the wall with his eyes on his shoes like the whole world was falling down on top of him. He was lost without Stiles, clearly, but there wasn’t a thing he could do to get him back because the problem was with seeing him. He was hurting.

I looked up to Theo sadly, the both of us sharing a look before his fingers untangled from mine. He took a deep breath and reached up to run his knuckles down over my belly, a gentle nod telling me to go.

I leaned into his touch, silently thanking him for the permission before I stepped forwards and reached out for Scott’s hands. My alpha looked up to me, agony in his face while I pulled him close and let him wrap his arms around me. He buried his face into my shoulder and held me tight, but not too tight that the babies were squashed between us. Theo’s heartbeat roared behind us at the contact but he restrained himself with force, letting me comfort our alpha like we both knew he needed.

“Theo, I’m sorry.” Scott’s voice came muffled from my shoulder. “I just-”

“It’s okay.” Theo tried to sound as calm as he could. “He’s your beta, you need him.”

I felt Scott nod against the side of my head and my palms rubbed up and down on his back.

“You just need space,” I told him reassuringly. “You’ve had a huge shock and it’ll take some time to come to terms with it. Trust me, I should know.”

I earned a breathy laugh from my shoulder, his torso jumping against mine with the movement.

“I think I’ll tell Mom about it.” He resolved on a deep breath. “She’s always been amazing with helping to deal with my problems. She’ll be able to tell me what I need to do.”

Our hug broke off slowly, Scott leaning back and looking up over my face tiredly. I nudged at his chest with a fist.

“At least you have a Mom who wants to help. Mine was never willing to listen, even when she was around. I had Mase and that was it.”

Scott’s eyes turned sad again and I wanted to kick myself for the shit pick-me-up.

“I’m sorry, Liam, I didn’t mean to rub it in-”

“No, that’s not what I was getting at, sorry. I just… I live with _Theo,_ I’m shit at talking to people now.”

“ _Hey.”_

I grinned at the reaction from behind me, just waiting while Theo took two long strides before snatching me up. His arms closed around me and he lowered his teeth to my throat to nip gently at the skin in punishment, pulling my weight back into him while a short breath sucked into my lungs.

I rolled my eyes when the bite was subsequently soothed with slow, hot kisses, letting him hold me close and stake his claim on me to settle the raging possessiveness he’d suffered only a minute ago. Scott got it with a smile, taking a few steps back to surrender me over without a fight.

“Message received, he’s all yours.”

I huffed, faking irritation while the smile played on my lips. The kisses kept coming, so hot and gentle and only just loud enough to make me want them upon my mouth. I was trapped in my mate and happily so, standing there and relaxing into him while he scented and claimed me thoroughly from behind.

Scott’s eyes roamed over the two of us, a gentle appreciative smile on his face. I could hear the words he wasn’t saying: _you guys are beautiful together._

Instead he lifted his phone and snapped a picture of us, Theo’s face still buried in my throat while he attached it to a message and sent it with a vibration to the Chimera’s phone in his front pocket. I felt it buzz against my butt.

Our heads lifted when the front doors slid open, Melissa McCall sticking her head out to catch our attention.

“So you are here,” She announced to herself. “What are you doing? We need to get this scan done, lovelies.”

Theo’s cheek remained against mine, his arms not relinquishing their hold on my chest once. Scott apologised to his mother and followed her inside, Melissa’s eyes warning us good-naturedly to hurry our asses up. The doors closed behind them, and once we were alone my mate’s arms slid, his hands spreading flat as they followed my abdomen down until smoothing over the firm swell of the babies.

I couldn’t help but close my eyes at the mere sensation, butterflies racing through me while he held them. Held _me._

“That’s starting to feel good.” I told him briefly, knowing he could decode the relaxed words from my deep exhale. “Really good.”

I felt him smile, felt his thumbs start to rub into my skin from above my clothes.

“Good. I like it, too.” His palms roamed lower, feeling the curve as my belly grew fuller towards the bottom. “You’re so beautiful like this.”

My heart started to come up my throat, the tingles he was causing in my blood starting to rush to my groin at his words. I inhaled almost sharply, my hands lowering to grip onto his in warning.

“Careful. You’re making it feel _too_ good.”

He teased me, pressing an open-mouthed, wet kiss to my throat before letting his hands slowly slide away to my hips. His fingers trailed longingly over the babies before he let himself leave them, his hands searching for my own instead.

“Can’t have that.” He murmured, turning me to face him and lowering his forehead to mine. He touched my cheek. “I mean it, though. You’re so fucking beautiful.”

It was effortless to allow myself to smile, the compliment finally _feeling_ like a compliment to my mind. I was getting better at this. My mind was recovering from the trauma.

“Thank you.” I whispered, letting the love wash over me instead of fighting against my thoughts. I _believed_ him. “ _Thank you.”_

He knew what the second thanks was for – helping me fight through my fear of the babies. He’d told me I was beautiful every day and did everything he could to help me grow fonder of the idea of my pregnancy. He’d supported me so damn strongly and it was paying off. I couldn’t have done it without him and he knew that.

He kissed my lips, the fingers upon my cheek stroking affectionately before he nodded just slightly against me.

“Always.”

We smiled at each other, taking a few seconds to just stare before breaking apart and joining our hands.

“Let’s see our babies, then.” I tugged at him, loving the flash of excitement in those green eyes as he followed my lead.

We stayed joined at the hip as we walked through the hospital doors, the warm air from the vents making me realise just how frosty it was outside. We navigated our way through the halls, calmness and confidence being shared between us as we overcame our fears of the building and found the room Melissa had reserved for the scan.

Theo slowly led me up to the doorway, his arm sliding around my back and holding me close at his side when the room came into view. Scott and Melissa were inside, our eyes needing to adjust to the darkness as the only light came from the ultrasound machine.

It was very similar to the one the Burnetts had used, only slightly more bulky and with a bigger range of transducers. It was set up beside a basic bed, a very non-threatening bed. One with plenty of pillows and none of the railings or enclosures that the Burnetts’ had. It looked much more open, more calming.

Mother and son looked upon me supportively while I took in the room and the equipment, the smells even coming to me in the form of plastic and bedsheets. They gave me time to adjust to what I was seeing, making sure there was no pressure on my shoulders forcing me in. My eyes closed in upon the ultrasound machine and I stared over it, memories floating up from my past of when Edith had scanned for the babies for the first time.

I could remember the pattern on her blouse and the feel of her fingers upon my belly as she pressed gently for my bladder. I could remember the scent of her perfume and the ponytail of blonde hair – the grey eyes and the coldness of the blue gel, the black and white of the screen and the loud beeps of the buttons and the press of the transducer and the sight of my belly caving under the firm pressure and the way my lungs had seized up and _I can’t breathe-_

But then the arm around my back moved, reminding me of its presence. A hand held my waist and another touched upon my cheek, bringing my mind back to the room in Beacon Hills and giving my eyes permission to _move,_ to look up to where the hand was gently pulling me. And my eyes found the hazel green ones of my mate, of _Theo_. He was right there, he was holding me close and his touch was so comforting on my skin, so welcome and perfect and _normal,_ and I could breathe again.

The air sucked in slowly and exhaled just the same, my eyes fluttering shut and my forehead dropping to rest upon his collarbones while he brought me back, helped to fight off the bad memories and create new ones, positive ones. His hands were gentle and so encouraging, patient and circling over my body while he waited for me to let him know I was ready. It took me a few lungfuls of his scent and a press of my lips to his throat before I lifted my head, opened my eyes and found his face.

He smiled softly at me, lifting his eyes to look through the room and urging me to do the same. He looked _with me_ , together, his hand on my waist giving a gentle squeeze. I took a deep breath and felt comfort roll over me in one heavy wave of _Theo._

He looked back to me, the green of his eyes flaring down into my blue.

“You ready?”

His voice was what completed me, just that familiar tone from his throat that I loved and knew so well. My lips tilted up with the suggestion of a smile and I nodded softly.

“Yeah.”

The hand on my waist guided me forward and I went, Theo taking every step with me. We walked into the darkness and the sliding door was shut behind us.

“You’re doing so good, sweetheart.” Melissa praised, stepping forwards beside the ultrasound machine and holding out a thick stack of paper. “These are the results from your blood test yesterday. You’ll find it a bit difficult to understand but it generally outlines your hCG levels, tested for diseases and such.”

Theo and I flipped through it, our eyes squinting at the complete doctor code before us. 

“The second page just lays out the full blood count,” She explained with an amused tone at our confusion. “The third shows your gonadotropin levels… those were very _high.”_

Theo looked up while I frowned at the text, trying to decipher the numbers and letters.

“What does that mean?” He asked slowly. “Is that bad?”

“Not necessarily. It just means his pregnancy hormones are extremely plentiful, which would explain why the babies have grown so quickly.”

_Cumulative Serum Human Chorionic Gonadotropin_

_Date     12/14/17_  
Time    10:59  
Lab       66900343

_HCG    394,036_

“It says that my count is almost at four hundred thousand.” I read aloud, looking up to Melissa. “What’s the normal range meant to be?”

She grimaced.  
“Between thirteen and sixteen weeks gestation, a high level is meant to be two hundred and fifty thousand.”

My eyes widened and I looked up to Theo immediately. His eyes met mine just as quickly, moving down to scan over the paper in my hands before his mouth fell open.

“I’m almost double…” I murmured. “When is it meant to be as high as mine?”

She shook her head, motioning for me to sit down on the bed. I followed her instruction, pulling Theo along with me. He sat in a chair beside the bed, pulling it up so his body could stay as close to mine as possible, my hand cupped in both of his.

“It’s never meant to reach that high. It’s meant to start declining after twelve weeks but yours has kept climbing. We’ll need to keep an eye on it, but for now it might just be that your body is very fertile, it’s reacting strongly to the pregnancy.”

I took a deep breath, looking back to Theo where he sat by my side. His hands squeezed mine and his eyes were promising upon my own, reassuring me that I’d be okay.

“So the rest of the results were okay?” I confirmed, relieved when Melissa nodded.

“Yes, all your regular levels were basically perfect.” She looked to Theo with a soft smile. “You’re feeding him very well.”

His lips broke out in a grin and he nodded, sending me a wink in the dim light to make me smile, too. He was so smug.

“Awesome, guys.” Scott nodded, a proud shine in his eyes.

 “Only thing I found was a vitamin D deficiency,” Melissa noted. “But almost everyone is vitamin D deficient, so it’s no concern. Not to mention it’s winter and you’ve just spent one month underground – it’s entirely understandable.”

I folded up the thick wad of results and gave them back to Scott’s Mom to hold. She tucked them into the pocket of her scrubs and lifted a clipboard, clicking a pen and taking a seat beside Scott on the other side of the bed.

“I just need to get a few details down for the report before we do the scan,” She looked down over the paper. “So your racial origin is obviously white, you don’t smoke, you don’t have diabetes… do you know what your weight was before you fell pregnant?”

I blinked for a moment before remembering the last time Coach had lined us up in the school gym for a physical exam in lacrosse. It was last year, but I didn’t expect my weight had varied too much. Well, it _hadn’t._ Now I was scared to even think about stepping on a set of scales.

“One fifty-two I think.”

Theo’s smile returned and his fingers reached forward in mine to tickle at the side of my belly.

“So little.” He whispered, earning a nudge from my foot to his knee.

He kissed my knuckles in apology, the adoring grin not leaving his lips.

“Method of conception,” Melissa continued aloud, causing me to frown. “ _Not_ what you think, sweetheart, it means to ask if the pregnancy was planned or not. I’ll put in spontaneous?”

Theo and I both nodded and she wrote it down onto the form on her clipboard.

“And last thing is the EDD…” She murmured to herself, reaching into her pocket for my blood results and flicking through the pages. “So according to the conception date in October, you’re only meant to be nine weeks. But when your first scan was done, they were four weeks ahead?”

I nodded.

“So now they’re supposed to be thirteen weeks but they experienced some form of accelerated growth?”

I looked to Theo, squeezing his hand when Melissa’s questions caused concern.

“Why? What’s EDD?”

“Oh, estimated delivery date. I’m trying to calculate it.” She looked down over my blood results again and took a deep breath. “With their spontaneous growth spurts, it’s going to make it very difficult to determine an actual date unless they settle down and stop skipping weeks. Right now, according to the levels in your blood they’re at the thirteen week mark. But looking at you…”

She looked up to bite her lip, shaking her head softly.

“I can’t tell. The scan will confirm their size and we’ll go from there. Are you ready?”

I nodded softly, sharing a glance with Theo when my heartrate rose. Melissa turned to prepare the machine and my mate lifted a hand to my cheek.

“The babies will be fine,” He murmured encouragingly, leaning up and pulling me closer to join our foreheads. “And _you_ will be fine. I’m sure of it.”

I touched his cheek back.  
“Do you really think so?”

He nodded confidently, a small smile on his lips.

“Yes.”

“Sweetheart?”

I turned to Melissa’s voice, swallowing when I realised she was waiting for me to lay down. Theo’s fingers followed my cheek, his thumb brushing over my temple when he felt my blood start to grow anxious.

“I’m right here, baby.” He whispered. My eyes tore away from the machine to look back at him. “Take a deep breath.”

“Lay with me.” I said before I could stop myself, _or_ ask if it was even allowed. “Please, I need you close.”

My mate looked up to Melissa for a moment before he nodded, standing from the chair and rising to his full height. He took his phone out from his jeans pocket and left it on the chair, motioning for me to scoot over so he could sit on the mattress next to me.

“Lay back, Li.” He told me softly, stretching out on his side and moving an arm under my shoulders while I let myself settle down onto my back. He pressed up against my side and held my head with the arm under me, the other coming up to rest over my chest. “Okay?”

I nodded on the pillows, taking a deep breath and letting it out. My body relaxed and the anxiety left with him so close beside me. His fingers brushed over my temple. I could hear his heartbeat and feel the warmth of his skin.

“Yes,” I told him in the darkness. “Thank you.”

He leaned up to press a kiss to my lips, looking down afterwards to lower his hand and lift the clothing up my belly. His skin brushed over mine the entire way, sending gentle tingles up my spine.

“We might need to unzip those jeans, too.” Melissa suggested, ripping and folding a long line of paper towels.

Theo gave a soft smirk before he reached down to do so, his fingers working at my button with more soft brushes of his skin to the babies. It upset me slightly that I couldn’t even see what he was doing. All I heard was the unzipping of my – _Theo’s_ – jeans and I felt the relief from my belly when the sides were pulled away from my hipbones.

Melissa tucked the paper towel down under the waistband of my underwear, just like Edith had, and reached for the tube of gel I despised so much.

“Mmh, no.” I groaned softly, lifting my lip in discomfort at the sight.

“What?” Theo asked, his eyes moving back and forth between me and the tube.

“The gel,” I started, bracing when it was squeezed over the fullest part of my belly. “It’s- _ah!_ It’s always so damn cold.”

“We put it in the freezer just before you get here.” Melissa smiled, clearly making a joke while she pressed a few buttons on her machine. “Okay, are we comfortable? All ready to go?”

I took a deep breath, looking to Theo with a bitten lip. He nodded at me, the hand over my heart giving a gentle rub.

“Yeah.” He answered for me, eyes alight with excitement. “We’re ready.”

He held onto me and pressed his hips a little closer on the mattress, taking my hand and threading our fingers together over my heart when Melissa brought the transducer down to the babies. My breath hitched when she spread the gel, the cool sliding pressure causing something to stir inside my stomach, but Theo was on me immediately.

“Breathe.” He whispered, a squeeze from his fingers in mine bringing me back up from the memories that had started to surface. “I’m right here this time.”

_Yes, he is. He’s here._

My lungs loosened up and I nodded, watching with him when the probe was pressed down. My belly caved under the pressure just like before, but not so much this time. It was firmer, more resistant to the force than it had been when it was smaller.

“Is this okay?” Melissa checked, and I was surprised to find myself nodding.

“Yeah,” I let myself smile, leaning my head closer to Theo’s until our temples joined. “Yeah, it’s good.”

She got started, pressing just a little deeper until she moved the transducer slightly up towards my navel and paused.

Theo and I looked up to the screen together and I listened while both of our hearts skipped.

“There they are.” Melissa announced gently, Scott coming up behind his mother to see too.

Both of them were right there on the screen, laying side by side together with their heads towards each other. They were definitely not the tiny little smudges in a circle Theo and I had been looking at in the picture from Edith’s nightstand.

They were _babies,_ beautiful little tiny babies. They had heads, spines, arms, hands, legs and feet and tiny little butts. They had ears and eyes, noses and mouths. They were only silhouettes on a black and white image, but we could _see them_. They were _humans._

Theo’s fingers squeezed mine and the breath left his chest in one rush.

“Holy shit,” He whispered faintly, refusing to even blink. “They’re… they’re…”

I smiled while the tears prickled in my eyes, his reaction just so genuine and overwhelmed.

“I know.” I agreed, watching his face before looking back up to the screen while Melissa started measuring with beeps and clicks. “I couldn’t find any words when I first saw them, either.”

“They’re _cute,_ guys.” Scott grinned, sitting down on the bed by my knees and leaning over to see. “It’s crazy, they’re actually real.”

“That’s the word I wanted,” Theo nodded to him. “Real. They’re _real.”_

“They’re very real.” Melissa noted, her eyes on the screen while she analysed the picture. “Your babies are definitely not thirteen weeks.”

Theo heard my heartbeat quicken and he stroked at my temple.

“What are they?” I asked, my voice almost a whisper.

“Sixteen weeks. They’re the size of avocados inside you.”

My eyes widened and I definitely stopped breathing.

“ _What?”_

 _“Sixteen?”_ Theo repeated, looking down over my belly for a shocked moment before turning his attention to me. His fingers held my head. “Jesus, Li. They’re definitely happy in there.”

I couldn’t process it properly, shaking my head with worried brows.

“They… they can’t. Theo…”

He leaned up to press a kiss to my lips, letting it last for several seconds worth of sucks and licks to lower my heartrate. I fell lax underneath him, only vaguely feeling Melissa move the transducer to the left on my belly. He kissed me for _minutes,_ keeping our heads connected and letting our lips peck and nip at each other softly while the time slowly passed by in a gentle calm.

Melissa worked on the left baby, countless beeps sounding from the machine while at least ten minutes went by. Theo kept me close, kept my attention on us and on him. And it worked. My mind relaxed and I accepted it.

The babies were sixteen weeks along. They were almost to twenty. Almost halfway.

They were growing far too quickly but I reminded myself that it was okay. It would all be okay, because they’d wait for me. They’d wait for _us._

“Thank you.” I whispered against my mate’s lips eventually, opening my eyes to find his while he laid beside me. “It’s gonna be okay.”

He smiled at me, nodding slowly before leaning up to kiss my forehead.

“Yes, it is. You’re welcome, baby. I’m always here, okay?”

I nodded, snuggling sideways into him and inhaling his skin before finally looking back up at the screen.

“What is _that?”_ I frowned in confusion, the screen all strange and yellow. “Are those my guts?”

Melissa laughed a little, shaking her head while she reached up to point.

“No, honey. This is a 3D image of your youngest, baby B is it?”

We nodded, our eyes squinting to try and make out the image.

“So what I’m looking at is the head. This is your nasal bone,” She pointed to a tiny little triangular shape. “And this curve up here is the forehead. I’m just measuring and examining the brain and skull, making sure there aren’t any deformities.”

“That’s its _face?_ ” I asked dubiously, seeing nothing but strange bubbly shapes in yellow. “I don’t like this version.”

“It makes them look a bit strange.” Melissa agreed, making two more clicks before zooming back out to the regular image of baby B. “So far it’s looking good. It’s being very still for me, usually sixteen weekers are squirming and shifting all over the place.”

Theo and I smiled quietly at the baby on the screen.

“It’s a calm little thing.” Scott adored from the end of the bed. “It’s the littlest one, right?”

“Yes, but not by too much.” Melissa smiled, pointing to the screen. “You see these colours in the middle of its body here? The blue and red?”

Theo and I both nodded, watching the colours flash and dance inside the baby’s chest.

“That’s your bloodflow. It’s got a very healthy heart, looking at all the movement.” She looked down to the both of us with a soft, expectant smile. “Are you ready to hear the heartbeat?”

_Holy fuck._

The tears came on their own, just the idea of listening to a little heartbeat from inside me making me weak with affection. Theo’s fingers squeezed mine over my heart, his smile above me so excited and in love.

“You ready, Li?”

I bit my lip in an attempt to stop it from trembling, feeling the first tear fall down my temple before I nodded. Theo nosed against me, kissing the water from my hair before Melissa pressed a few buttons, turning a dial on the machine and letting the sound fill our ears.

My heart exploded inside my chest, the breath huffing out of me when the beautiful little frantic _swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish_ sounded out through the room. The tears turned into a flood.

“ _Fuck.”_ I cried, turning to bury my head against Theo as I listened. “It’s _alive, Theo. It’s alive.”_

He sniffled against my head, nodding and pressing several breathy kisses to my hair.

“Yeah.” I could hear the smile in his voice. “So damn proud of you, Li. You’re keeping them alive.”

“That’s a really healthy heartbeat, guys.” Melissa sounded pleased. “Very strong.”

My mate and I tried to recover from our explosive hearts, sniffling and accepting the tissues Scott handed to us with a proud grin. He was quiet, but I knew he was feeling exactly what we felt. The happiness shone through every pore in his skin.

“Can you tell the gender?” Theo asked aloud, shocking me anew with the idea. “Is sixteen weeks big enough to tell?”

Melissa took a few more measurements before zooming back out from the heart. The little swooshing stopped, allowing my heart to finally calm.

“I could try to look, but the diagnosis is usually questionable until after twenty weeks.” She explained apologetically. “It happens all the time, people are told that they’re having one gender and in a few weeks time it’ll appear that they were wrong. It’s up to you, I can look if you really wish but I think it’s better to wait a little while longer.”

Theo looked to me, his eyes showing just the tiniest flash of hesitancy that told me he would rather wait. I nodded at him to agree.

“We can wait.” I told him, rubbing a thumb over his knuckles. “One more month.”

“With the rate that they’re growing, you might even be able to tell in two weeks.” Melissa suggested. “Even if they don’t skip their weeks, they seem to be developing very clearly. We can look then, if you’d like?”

My mate and I only had to glance at each other before nodding simultaneously. It was decided with a nod from Melissa, too, and she continued with her work.

“Well, your youngest is very strong. He or she is approximately 11.7 centimetres from head to rump, or almost five inches long. And their heartbeat is steady at 158 beats per minute. The brain, spine, stomach and abdominal wall all appear to be normal, both hands and feet are visible, as are its kidneys and bladder… you’ve got a very healthy little one here.”

“Good.” I smiled, closing my eyes upon receiving the kiss Theo pressed to my temple. Melissa moved onto baby A on the right and I nudged at my mate. “Hey.”

“Hmm?”

“Read to me.” I murmured. “From your website.”

He grinned, rolling onto his back to reach for his phone on the chair beside the bed.

“Oh, here we go.” Melissa called out lowly, pressing the transducer a little harder onto my belly. “You’ve got a very active one here.”

“I can _feel it,”_ My eyes widened, both Theo and I looking to the screen while the baby wriggled and squirmed in a blur of limbs. “It’s never been this frantic before.”

“Jesus,” My mate laughed. “Doesn’t like being on camera.”

When Theo spoke, it settled down a touch. I looked to him with excited eyes and nodded him on.

“It likes your voice,” I urged him, falling in love with the surprised smile on his face. “Start reading from the website, maybe it’ll settle.”

He quickly pulled up the page he wanted, rolling back over beside me and scrolling on his phone before resting it upon my ribs.

“Woah, okay. Sixteen weeks, it says to get ready for a growth spurt. In the next few weeks the babies will double in weight and add inches onto their length.” He looked up to the unimpressed expression on my face. “Yay for you.”

I smacked him, earning a soft laugh before he continued.

“The patterning of their scalps has started but hair isn’t recognisable yet. They’ve started growing their nails and their hearts are pumping several quarts of blood every day, which will continue to increase as they develop. The top of the uterus is halfway between your pubic bone and your navel, and the ligaments that support it are thickening and stretching as it grows. You're probably feeling a whole lot better as you settle into pregnancy; less nausea, fewer mood swings etcetera.”

“It’s working, guys.” Scott called with a smile, and we watched up on the screen as the baby stayed still for Melissa. “It likes your voice, Theo.”

I heard the gentle flutter that came from his chest, the pride swelling inside him to learn that his baby could hear him. I reached a hand up to brush through his hair, happiness coursing through me.

“Keep going.” I smiled.

“It talks about starting to feel slight movement but you’ve been feeling that for weeks. Their skeletons are starting to harden from rubbery cartilage to bone… their umbilical cords have matured with two arteries and one vein and are growing stronger as their needs increase. They’ve got eyelashes and they can hear our _voices_ ,” He gave me a gentle, excited nudge to make me laugh. “And your symptoms can include backaches, forgetfulness, constipation-”

“Why isn’t any of this _positive?”_ I groaned, receiving a soft circle of Theo’s hand over my heart.

“And,” He continued, letting the hand stop over my left pec. “You’ll get bigger boobs.”

We couldn’t help but laugh. Even Melissa cracked a smile before she interrupted.

“Second heartbeat, kids.” She announced, waiting for our chuckles to die down before letting the eldest baby’s heartbeat sound out through the room. It was the same cute swishing noise, except this one was slightly slower.

“Is it okay? It’s slower…”

Melissa nodded, measuring up the heart.  
“More than okay. This one’s the eldest, therefore it’s more developed. As the babies grow older, their heartbeat drops. So we’ve got another strong heartbeat pumping at 154 bpm, and the length from head to butt iiis…”

She zoomed out, tapping at a few more buttons before getting her answer.

“12.3 centimetres, so it’s five centimetres bigger than the little one. Very healthy development here too, we’ve got a cupid’s bow on the upper lip and obviously this one has already started moving and squirming for you. I just have two more measurements to take and we’ll be done here.”

“Thank god,” I sighed, smiling up at Theo while he watched our babies on the screen. “I’m keen for some fruit.”

He grinned with a nod.  
“Me, too. Not long now, baby.”

We laid together and waited while Melissa made her last measurements on the squirmy little baby. She seemed incredibly pleased with her findings from the scan, a proud smile on her motherly face when she shut the machine down and turned the lights on around us. I sat up and Theo helped me to my feet, drawing me in for a long cosy hug that screamed, _I’m so proud of you Li._

Melissa put my blood results into an envelope and she hugged us goodbye, relieved to be able to run off to enjoy her lunch break. Scott walked us out to the carpark, tucking his hands into the back pockets of his jeans and smiling at us. We said our goodbyes and left for home, hands twined together on the seat between us with soft, elated smiles on our lips.

Our babies were like little avocados and they were so healthy. It was an incredible concept, something the both of us felt proud of. We were growing them together – it wasn’t just me. I doubted they would be growing as quickly or as happily as they were if I didn’t have Theo.

We moved in through the front door together and I stood cuddled up beside him while he cut us up some fruit, in those perfect little squares like he always did. We curled up on his bed together and put a movie on, finishing our lunch at the same time. It was comfortable and peaceful, both of us too excited from this morning’s scan to really pay all of our attention to the film in front of us. We laid there and thought together, the movie serving as pleasant background noise before Theo nudged at me softly.

“I think I want to stay home with you until you go back to school Monday.” He told me with a roll of his head in my direction. “I’ll have my shifts covered. I want to spend as much time with you as I can.”

I slumped against his body and let out the deepest breath, comforting myself against him with the firmness of his existence under my fingers, the smell of his skin and his words in my mind.

“I wish Ms. Martin could’ve let you come with me.” I murmured. “Every time I think about spending six hours apart from you, it makes me feel sick.”

He agreed with a hum. He leaned down to nose at my cheek softly, his thumbs smoothing over my face and leaving so much comfort in their wake.

“I know. Even though it’s just for one week, it’ll be so much harder when you go back after winter break. Maybe by then she’ll let me stay with you. The babies will be much bigger by then; I’ll have to help you stand up every time you sit down.”

The smile spread across my face and I reached up to smack him, but he caught my wrist and pressed tens of little kisses to my fingers and palm before lifting it to twine around his neck. I let my other arm join, letting him roll onto me. He lowered his lips to mine and devoured them in a slow dance of sucks and licks. He knew I was still a little nervous when I thought about the future, but he settled every nerve in my body like he’d done so many times before. It was what he was good at, what he was made for.

But then something happened. Something that took my breath away.

There was a gentle flutter inside my belly, pushing up with a tiny force against the surface and nudging right into Theo.

Our lips broke apart and the both of us looked down to where it had come from, deep breaths coming from my lungs and my eyes growing wide when I started to feel it – the rolls and tumbles and somersaults inside my womb.

“ _Theo…”_

He bristled at the noises from my throat, half sitting up and looking between me and my belly, where my eyes were trained.

He didn’t even get to ask before I was gripping his wrist and tugging his hand down to feel under my clothes, the total parade his babies were throwing inside my body. These weren’t just the deep, internal flutters and squirms I’d felt just barely over the past few weeks. These were _proper_ , full-on movements that rolled around and made waves under my skin. The babies felt _big_ , they felt strong and energetic and they were _moving._

The noises started coming from Theo too, his expression just as wild as mine while his other hand came to join his first, pushing the shirt up and spreading over my belly to feel the rolls and nudges that poked from inside me.

“Oh my god,” He breathed, the breath turning into a laugh of disbelief and pure happiness as the shock passed from his system. “Li, they’re _moving.”_

I was dumbstruck while I watched, so many emotions brewing inside my heart. We’d just seen these guys on a screen and now they were full on _moving_ inside me.

“They feel like _aliens,”_ I almost whined, the smile spreading over my face when Theo laughed again. “Can you feel all this? They’re _rolling.”_

He nodded enthusiastically, his hands firming down over them just a little harder.

“Yeah, I feel it,” His eyes concentrated while he felt around, his fingers pressing and following the bumps and nudges to the right side of my stomach. “It’s this one. He’s strong, he’s like a little hurricane in there.”

The both of us looked to each other immediately after he said it, our mouths hanging open when we realised what he’d said.

“He?” I repeated softly, an overwhelmed smile taking over my mouth and brows.

Theo shook his head slowly, total wonder on his face.

“I… I don’t know, it just kind of came out.” He looked back to the baby as it settled down under his hand at last, just making soft affectionate rolls against his palm as though it was comforted now that he was there. “Do you think…?”

I shrugged with an open expression.  
“Maybe. It could be. Your instincts _are_ always right.”

We watched while the right side of my belly was poked at from the inside, right up into Theo’s fingers. _Nudge. Nudge… nudge, nudge._

“It’s incredible.” He whispered, rubbing over the little movements tenderly. “Which baby is this?”

I tried to remember.  
“It’s baby A, the bigger one. Left is baby B.”

Theo tickled his fingers gently over the nudges, the most incredible, adoring smile over his face.

“It’s definitely a little fighter.” He reached down with his other hand, keeping his left over baby A while he smoothed down above baby B. “This one’s quiet.”

I felt tears stinging at the sight before me, my voice almost cracking when I brushed my lover’s hair back.

“Theo.”

He looked up, eyes alight and focusing on mine. At first his expression spiked with concern at the tears in my eyes, but it turned to fondness when he realised they were reciprocating with the smile over my face.

“Talk to them.” I whispered, nodding down to where his hands were spread over my skin. His eyes lit up and he stared at me, so I encouraged him again with a stroke to his cheek. “Talk to them.”

He looked down over my belly, his eyes wandering over it before he looked back up to me.

“I… I don’t know _how._ ”

I knew what he meant; he wasn’t a conversationalist. Before me, he’d never started a conversation. A _polite,_ genuine conversation. He didn’t know how to say hello.

I pried one of his hands off the babies gently to lift it to my lips, closing my eyes when his fingers insisted upon wiping my tears.

I smiled at him.  
“Yes you do.”

His thumb stroked over my cheek for another moment before baby A assaulted his left palm again, drawing a flinch from my hips in surprise. We both gave soft laughs and I let his right hand go to return to baby B. His fingers smoothed over both of them equally, his eyes alight and careful while he looked between them.

“I… I don’t really know how to do this.” He looked up to me momentarily. I nodded him on. “But I guess I’ll start with _hi._ ”

Nothing happened for a while, the both of us just watching while the surface of my belly went still under his hands, save for my breaths. I felt slight disappointment rising from him, his fingers stroking slightly while he waited.

“Maybe they’re listening.” I told him in a whisper, the moment too quiet to speak any louder.

He seemed hesitant before letting his head fall a little closer to them.

“I never thought I’d be doing this,” He told them softly. “Talking to babies inside someone’s stomach. I haven’t been a very good person and I never thought I could deserve two little miracles like you. But Liam makes me want to try.”

Another tear fell and the smile started to hurt in my cheeks.

“He’s so amazing. He picked me up and made me better, he made me want to be different. I felt like if I could become a good enough person, that maybe I would be worthy of him. That maybe I could be lucky enough to have him. But apparently I deserved so much more, because now there’s _you._ ”

_Fuck, he looks so beautiful doing this._

“You have no idea how lucky you are to have him. He’s the strongest, fiercest, most beautiful person in the world. He’s everything I have. So you have to be good to him. Be kind and gentle, try not to hurt him. I know he’s been very upset and stressed out lately, and I know it’s been worrying you, but it’s only because being strong comes with a price. Everything does. He just needs to get through it, and I know he can because I have so much faith in him. He’s scared and you two were very big surprises. He’s been confused and afraid and he needs time to get used to you, but I know that he really wants to meet you. He and I both do. You’re the most precious things we’ve ever had.”

He nearly had me in a blubbering mess. My fingers held onto the back of his neck and I gasped, the tears like a river upon my throat.

“ _Theo.”_

He glanced up at me, wetness shining in his eyes, too. The tears hadn’t fallen because he was strong like that, but I was a whole different story. A _hormonal_ one.

He laughed softly and leaned into my hand, turning back to the babies with a stroke to my skin.

“I’m making him cry,” He told them, lowering his head to brush his nose gently along the surface of my belly. “I might be crying too, but it’s because we’re happy. I know you don’t understand me yet, but I want you to know that we love you. We might not be ready for you just yet, but we love you so much. I promise you we’ll do everything we can to keep you safe, make you happy. You just have to be patient with us. We’re still learning about all this and it’s still a little scary for us. And it’s good that you’re getting bigger, but you can’t grow _too_ fast. We need you to wait, slow down a little so we can breathe. Can you do that for us?”

A nudge finally poked up into his palm, followed by a shift and then one full tumble inside me. I felt the water drop onto my skin from his eyes.

“I can feel you,” He rubbed over baby A. “You’re energetic, aren’t you?”

It rolled again and we both couldn’t help the breathy laughs that came from our hearts.

“I think you’re a stubborn little thing like Liam, huh?” _Roll._ “Yeah. Well you can’t be too stubborn. Like I said, you gotta be gentle with him. You can’t hurt him or make him uncomfortable.”

My fingers scratched into his hairline from the nape of his neck, my heart already having died and gone to heaven from the overdose of love for my mate. I laid there under his weight and just witnessed while he spoke to our babies, asked them not to hurt me. _I love him so much._  

The next nudge that came up under his fingers was gentler, less sharp. We both smiled as his words somehow made a difference.

“That’s it.” He encouraged the baby. “You be good to him. He’s working so hard to help you grow, so you have to take it easy on him.”

His fingers tickled over the stubborn one before he moved his attention down to the quiet one, baby B. I watched as his thumb stroked down over the roundness, his lashes lowered while he watched and waited.

“What about you?” He murmured. “Are you energetic, too? Or are you a placid little one?”

“Press a little harder,” I told him softly. “It’s stirring.”

He put more weight down into his palm, watching until he felt the tiny little whirl from deep inside me. His cheeks lifted when his smile widened.

“There you are. Can you come up to say hello?” We both watched while the left side of my belly remained still. “Don’t be shy.”

I rested my head back against the pillows with a tired smile.

“Maybe it isn’t quite big enough yet.”

He shrugged with a few more strokes over my skin.

“I don’t know, I think it’s just shy.” He nosed against the surface next to his hand. “What if I give you a kiss? Will you say hello then?”

I wasn’t sure what he was waiting for, but he lowered his head anyway. He moved his hand to press a slow kiss over baby B, the warmth of his lips on my skin making me close my eyes in bliss. It felt so beautiful.

He let the kiss last at least six seconds, coming up only to press two more down.

He pressed his palm back down and felt with anticipation, waiting. I was sure he felt it before I even did, his eyes brightening when another stir came before the smaller baby _rolled_ for him. It was only one roll, but it curved up against the surface for him in a definite gesture to indicate that it’d heard him.

Our smiles reached from ear to ear.

“There you are,” He cooed, the softest tone in his voice. “Thank you for saying hi. You’re a gentle little one, aren’t you?”

_Nudge._

“Theo,” I exhaled, catching his attention. “You’re going to kill me.”

His expression laughed at me and he reached up to touch my lips, the most affectionate glint in his eyes.

“I’m nearly done, I promise.”

I kissed his fingers, holding him to his promise. If he kept this up, my heart was going to explode.

He smoothed his palms back over both his babies and a long breath left his lips, one that sounded so content and complete. He looked between the two sides.

“You guys should get some rest.” He told them. “You’ve been so excited today, I’ll bet you need a sleep.”

I felt baby B give a gentle poke while baby A did a whole somersault. Theo and I grinned and he nodded up to me.

“Definitely just as stubborn as you.” He confirmed.

“Cut him some slack, then.” I offered gently. “He can’t help it.”

“He?” My mate returned the same inquisitive smile that I’d given him when he first blurted a gender-specific noun. I rolled my eyes at him. “You agree with me, then?”

I nodded, looking down over Theo’s fingers while they moved with the baby.

“Just really feels like a _he._ ”

His eyes were bright and triumphant and he turned back to the rambunctious little creature.

“There we go,” He told it… _him._ “We feel like you’re a little man instead of a little lady. I’m sorry if we’re wrong.”

_Nudge._

“That one was awfully gentle. Are you saying we’re right?”

_Nudge._

“Li, I think we’re onto something here.”

I couldn’t help the laugh that came from my chest, shaking my head at the ridiculous guy before me.

“You’re an idiot. He isn’t actually communicating with you, he’s only half-developed.”

He shrugged, palming off my good-natured insult.

“I don’t know, I have a feeling about him.” He tickled his fingers over both of the babies. “I need to stop now, Liam’s getting jealous of all the attention you’re getting.”

He stopped to watch the glare that I sent him before continuing smugly.

“You guys have a rest. You be good to Liam, okay? _Please_.” He received slow rolls from either side and let himself smile softly. “Go to sleep. I love you.”

Baby B gave one tiny stir and Theo pressed a warm kiss over the left side of my belly. He moved up to the right before issuing a warning.

“I’m going to kiss you, okay? Don’t kick me in the face.”

He waited for a few seconds before tentatively lowering his lips to my skin once more, leaving the kiss over our second little bump. The baby rolled up just softly against Theo’s lips, the sweetest fucking thing I’d ever felt. The smile was on my mate’s mouth before he even lifted his head, his entire face full of happiness while he stroked his thumbs over our babies as they settled down inside me.

“You’re incredible.” I whispered with a slow shake of my head, the tears stinging once more at the beautiful sight before me. “You’re so fucking incredible.”

He looked up towards me, his eyes shining wetly as well. He laughed, the happiest sound in the world while his tears fell and he moved up my body to hold both my cheeks in his hands.

“We’re _parents,_ Li.” He sniffled, stroking over my skin back and forth as though he couldn’t get enough of the contact between us. “God, it’s so beautiful. I’ve never felt like this before.”

I held him back, drawing him down for the tightest hug while I let my own tears come down. I knew exactly what he meant. The fullness in my chest was something I’d never experienced. It was one of the strongest, happiest feelings I’d ever felt – the _most_ incredible one being the way Theo made me feel. 

He lifted his head and let me wipe his tears while he wiped mine.

“I never thought I’d get to feel something like that,” He shook his head in hysterical disbelief. “They were _moving_ for me, they could hear my voice and they were _responding_ to me.”

I smiled under his fingers, trying not to let my lips tremble as the cries fell over me.

“You looked so beautiful with them, Theo. You’re going to be amazing.”

He brushed his fingertips over my lashes, in awe.  
“You _are_ amazing. None of this would be possible without you.”

I realised that the expression on his face was thankfulness. The deepest form I’d ever seen on his face. Thankfulness laced with the sweetest happiness, and the rareness of his tears to go with it. I doubted his parents even saw him cry as a baby, but he was letting himself cry for me.

“ _Thank you,”_ He whispered against my lips, our tears mixing in between. “Li, _thank you_.”

Our lips joined and we held each other so close, so tight. I felt the bond that tied us together humming with strength, pushing so much love and power through our veins that I was sure it had turned to pure gold.

“I love you so much.”

_Kiss, kisskisskiss._

“I love you so fucking much.”

_Kisskiss._

Theo lifted his head.  
“Do you think we’d disturb the babies’ sleep if we had sex?”

I laughed aloud, shaking my head at him and holding his face.

“They’ve never minded before.”

He seemed relieved, the smile spreading over his lips before he nodded and dove down at me.

“Good.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank all you lovely people for sticking with me through this fic! I'm still absolutely loving writing it, and I want you all to know that I'm writing it for YOU. Yes, partly for myself because I love Li and Theo just as much as you, but I wouldn't be writing it if it weren't for the incredible support you guys have shown in all the amazing comments. It literally lights up my face when I get emails for your comments and my heart just bursts with happiness when I read them. 
> 
> So thank you all so very much, and I love you! I hope you have a beautiful Christmas xxx - H


	23. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

After seeing _and_ feeling the babies on Thursday, Theo and I had grown into a whole new level of inseparable.

We thought it was at its full capacity before, but after discovering and experiencing the very real presence of our babies inside me, it was like our love and attraction for each other had somehow doubled. We didn’t think it was possible to love each other any more than we already did, but our hearts kept surprising us with how far they could swell inside our chests. And honestly, it was incredible.

I no longer felt afraid when I looked down over the swell of the babies inside my belly. Instead I felt wonder. Wonder, love and excitement.

Sure, I still felt considerably nervous when I thought about the future because my list of things we had to do was still very incomplete. But nervousness was natural – and it wasn’t _anxiety._ If it wasn’t anxiety, I could live with it.

Every time I thought of the future and felt that niggling nervousness inside my chest, I would tell Theo. I was letting myself open up to him about it every single time instead of trying to suppress it on my own, and each time he wrapped himself around me and chased away the feelings with kisses and murmurs into my mating bite that we were going to be just fine. He made a point to ask me about items on my list that we could work on, sitting next to me while we looked over it. I told him I wasn’t exactly ready to go baby shopping just yet, but we decided that we could start to think about what kind of names we liked.

It turned out we had very similar taste, both appreciating names that were different, individual but not _weird._

He liked names like Harlan, Caspian and Skyler for boys, and Clover, Autumn and Kristal for girls – all of which I loved.

I liked names like Zylen, Pierce, Jasper and Austyn for boys, and April, Alaya, Ava, Athena and Ivy for girls – I seemed drawn to the A’s.

It was an entirely new world of things to consider and I never realised how difficult picking names could actually be. We kept a list in my phone of the ones we liked and agreed on, but over the weekend it just started turning into a never-ending line of names that we would never be able to choose between. So we concluded that if nothing had created that perfect spark inside us upon seeing it, we hadn’t found the right names.

We stayed curled up under blankets all weekend to keep each other warm in the 48 degree weather, keeping close and spending as much time together as we could before Monday rolled around – which it did, eventually.

I was woken up with a gentle kiss to my lips, a reluctant groan leaving my throat while I rolled into Theo’s chest. His arms wrapped around me and I blindly found his throat, pressing a few lazy, sleepy kisses to the hot skin before inhaling as deeply as I could. _God, he smells good._

“Gotta get up, baby.” His voice vibrated against my lips. “We’ve got twenty minutes to leave.”

My eyes flew open and I leaned back to frown at him.

“What? Why’d you wake me so late?”

He shrugged, reaching up to brush the tangles of hair from my face.

“I wanted to let you sleep for as long as possible. You need it.”

I took a deep breath, sitting up from the pillows and palming the sleep from my eyes while the day ahead haunted me in my mind. I’d had a week to prepare myself for this morning, but it didn’t make me feel any less reluctant to be apart from Theo for an entire day.

He knew what I was thinking, leaning back on his hands beside me and tilting his head to catch my attention.

“Hey. It’ll be fine. Just think, it’s the same as when I go to work and Scott comes over to stay with you. This time you’ll be somewhere too, and you’ll have your friends until I can come get you. We’ve been apart for longer than this, remember.”

I nodded miserably, picking at my own fingers above the white duvet. He was right – what was six hours compared to one month?

“Still sucks.” I murmured anyway.

He lifted my chin.

“Hey. We’re going to be just fine. We’ll be texting each other throughout the day and you’ll be wearing my clothes so you’ll smell like me. We’ll literally only be two miles apart.” His eyes smiled confidently into mine. “We can do it.”

I leaned in to press our lips together, closing my eyes and savouring the taste of him. We took our time before breaking apart, Theo helping me out of bed and to my feet before lifting my t-shirt to see my belly.

“They feel alright?” He asked, letting a hand roam down over the roundness. “Not sore or growing, no stretching feelings, no pelvic pain?”

I smiled softly at him, shaking my head.   
“None. They’ve been really good.”  

He smiled back, nodding with relief and lifting the shirt up over my head for me.

“They really listened to my requests.” He mused, turning and sifting through his drawers for a long-sleeved t-shirt. He found a navy one with grey sleeves, bunching it up over my head and holding the arms out. “What about nausea? You feel sick?”

“Mm, no.” I hummed thoughtfully. “Just a little hungry. I feel _good,_ Theo.”

The t-shirt fit over the babies nicely, the material just thick enough to settle my mate’s concerns that I needed to be kept warm. He unfolded a pair of his jeans and knelt to hold them out for me to step into, pulling them up my thighs and settling them around my hips.

“You don’t have to dress me, you know.” I rolled my eyes, almost shivering at the touch of his fingers low on the babies as he zipped me up. “I _can_ bend over, just… not without cutting off air supply.”

He laughed through his nose, fastening the button and smoothing both hands down over my belly from above the t-shirt. It made my knees weak just to feel it.

“As long as I’m here, you are not lifting a finger if it’s something I can do for you.” He stepped in closer and pulled my waist in, letting our babies press to his stomach. “I’m here to support you, Li. I want you to be as comfortable as possible.”

I nodded softly, relinquishing the stubborn hold I’d had on my shoulders and leaning my forehead against his.

“I know. Thank you.” I accepted the soft kiss he pressed onto my lips before continuing. “I’m still adjusting to the no independence thing. You know what I’m like.”

He smiled with an obvious nod.

“Yes,” He whispered proudly. “I do.”

We let ourselves have that short moment together, just standing close and nuzzling against one another before the day ahead called in the form of a schoolbus polluting its way down the street. We both sighed and parted, Theo offering me one of his hoodies to cosy up inside. This one was grey, freshly-washed and even sprayed a little with his cologne – just for me.

He tugged me out to the kitchen and sat me down in front of some buttered toast, a glass of juice and a fruit bowl, joined by two jars of pills we had picked up under Melissa’s request. They were vitamin D capsules and prenatal vitamins – something about folic acid being good for the babies.

I swallowed them down and started on my toast while Theo brushed through my hair from behind, his fingers smoothing down over my scalp in the gentlest massage before he bunched it up and fastened it into one of his favourite little buns with an elastic. He had really taken a liking to it, insisting that I get it out of my face when, really, he just thought I looked cute with a man bun. Either way, I couldn’t find myself bothered enough to care.

I finished my breakfast as quickly as I could without giving myself indigestion, being turned around in my chair and having my feet attacked by a pair of socks from the Chimera kneeling on the floor. I huffed at him while he slipped a pair of Vans on my feet and did up the laces, an amused smile on his lips at my irritation.

“Dude, really.” I deadpanned down to him. “I can put my own shoes on.”

“Li. What did we just talk about?” He earned another sigh from me before I sat back against the chair in submission. He reached up to thumb at my lips. “Still feeling okay?”

I nodded, accepting his hands to help me up when he’d tied the second set of laces.

“Just a little nervous, but I’m ready. Ready to get back into schoolwork and catch up.”

He gave a pleased, proud smile and cleared the dishes from the table while I packed my bag. We got out the door just a few minutes late, Theo forcing me to hold his hand on our way down the stairs to the garage, and even when I was stepping up into the truck. I tried not to feel mad at him and let myself enjoy how much he cared, watching out the window with calm breaths in my chest while he drove to the school.

It was strange, taking the same old route. It almost felt as if the past month hadn’t happened and I wasn’t a recovering victim of kidnapping and PTSD. I even would’ve forgotten I was pregnant if the babies weren’t pressing down upon the creases of my thighs and jostling around with every bump in the road. The poor things were probably trying to sleep.

We pulled up at the main entrance and I looked over the building with a deep breath, watching while several students from outside turned to stare. Those several students seemed to alert the others, and soon almost every head was turned and watching at the truck, knowing exactly whose it was.

“They’re already staring.” I grunted, reaching down between my knees to pull up my backpack. “Brilliant.”

Theo looked past me to see them all, his eyes scanning over every face like he was committing them to memory. I knew what he was doing and thought of telling him to stop before reminding myself that this was what he needed, what his instincts were telling him to do. He was assessing, playing out every possible scenario in his mind and putting preventative plans in place before reassuring himself that I could get out of the truck safely. I waited patiently, my fingers stroking over his own on his thigh until he finally grit his teeth and moved.

“Wait for me.” He murmured softly, taking the keys from the ignition and getting out on his side.

I did as he asked, waiting until he rounded the truck and opened my door for me, keeping himself as a barrier between me and the students’ eyes behind him.

I used his shoulder for support when I climbed down, slinging my bag over one shoulder and looking down over the babies to pull the hoodie further over them.

“Can you tell?” I asked lowly, looking up to find his eyes. “It’s not obvious is it?”

He shook his head.   
“Not unless you’re looking for it. Just looks like the jumper has a lot of extra room.”

I nodded and sighed in relief, running a hand down over his chest to tell him it was okay, I was ready. He took a deep breath and looked unhappily down over my face and the babies, reaching a knuckle out to run it over the crown of my belly discreetly before stepping back and letting me out onto the footpath.

I avoided looking at anyone, turning to watch while Theo shut the door and locked the truck before he turned and wrapped an arm around my back, guiding me forwards gently. We started walking and I kept my eyes on the ground the entire way up to the front doors.

The amount of eyes I could feel on us was colossal, literally every student standing and staring until we moved inside the building. But in there it was much worse.

The moment the doors swung shut behind us, the loud deafening chatter reduced by half. People abandoned their conversations to stare while Theo led me through the crowds, everyone moving aside hastily upon realising it was us. I could feel the protectiveness literally burning off of Theo’s skin, almost heard the deep growls that yearned to slide out from his chest to threaten everyone that if they touched me, it meant death.

I heard the stupid group of girls start to whisper, that very same group who always bickered when I walked past.

“Oh my god. That’s Liam.”   
“I heard he got kidnapped. He looks tired.”   
“He looks _hot._ He grew his hair out.”   
“Do you think he’s dating Theo?”   
“ _Of course_ he is. Look at them.”   
“Why is he wearing such large clothes?”   
“Maybe it’s a werewolf thing.”   
“Shut _up_ , Jenny, you always say that.”

_Block them out._

I took a deep breath and shook it off, watching ahead while my mate made the conscious effort to seethe at every face around us. I nudged at his side.

“You don’t have to glare at them,” I told him softly while we walked. “They’re already afraid of you.”

His eyes seemed to flare and he nodded only slightly.

“Good. Means they won’t dream of laying a hand on you.”

“Li-uuum!”

Both our heads perked up at the excited holler from ahead, a smile forming over my lips when I caught sight of my friends over by my locker.

They were all curled up in their winter clothes with backpacks at their feet and bright smiles on their faces, and just seeing the three of them made my heart lift inside my chest. It helped to fight the anxiety that I felt about coming back here, because of course these guys were going to keep me safe. They were going to stay by my side and do everything they could to keep me calm while my blood ached for Theo. They had my back.

Mase held his arms out and trotted over to us, Theo’s hand reluctantly letting go of my waist to allow my friend to wrap me in a hug. I hugged him back, closing my eyes against the fluff of his fur hoodie while he made excited noises and bounced on his toes against me.

“My wolf boy is _back.”_ He celebrated, pulling away to look me over. “And you look _good!_ The blueberries have been great lately, I’m assuming?”

My eyes widened slightly but I realised quickly that the talk about fruit would sound purely nutritional to anyone listening. I let myself smile, nodding with a soft glance to Theo. He smiled back, the green of his eyes brightening with his mood.

“Yeah.” I told my best friend happily. “They’ve been really good. Getting much bigger with the season.”

Corey and Malia crowded up beside Mason, the three of them plus Theo forming a circle with me. Their eyes moved down to my belly and I let them look while Theo pulled me back into his side protectively, pressing a kiss to my temple.

“Almost can’t hide it,” Malia commented lowly, her eyes flitting up to look over Theo and I with dark surprise. “How many weeks are they meant to be?”

“They were meant to be thirteen,” I murmured into the group. “But the translucency scan showed them as sixteen.”

My friends’ eyes widened and I watched while they directed back down to the babies, Theo’s fingers tickling against my side in amusement.

“ _Dude,_ ” Mason hissed under his breath. I could tell he was itching to reach forward to poke my hoodie. “That’s like…”

“Second trimester.” Corey answered for him. “You could find out the gender soon, right?”

Theo nodded, excitement starting to pulse through his body at the mention of it.

“Two weeks.” He confirmed, eliciting ridiculous noises from each of my friends. “Think one of them’s just like Li, psycho and stubborn.”

I elbowed him in the ribs while Mason tried not to cackle.

“Which one?”

Theo had to resist reaching over to point at my right.

“Biggest one, on the right. We felt it doing somersaults the other night.”

“ _Daaamn.”_

“What about the other one? Do you have any ideas of what they might be?”

“The little one is so sweet,” I smiled, willing my eyes not to sting with tears at the memory of its gentle little nudges. “Really calm and placid, barely makes a fuss. We’re not sure about that one, but we’re fairly sure the big one is a boy.”

“ _Yes!_ He wants to play lacrosse, that’s why he’s somersaulting!”

“ _Shh!”_

Mason quietened down, trying to rein in his excitement.

“So you’re not sure about the little one?”

“Sounds like a girl to me.” Malia lifted her brows proudly.

Corey nudged at her.   
“Boys can be gentle, too. Wouldn’t it be cool if you got two boys?”

“It would be _cooler_ if they got a girl and a boy.” Malia argued while Mason reached out with an extended finger to poke at my belly.

_Smack!_

He wrenched his hand away under the slap of my palm, a pout falling over his face in disappointment.

“ _Later.”_ I mouthed to him while Corey and Malia continued to argue.

He nodded and gave me the thumbs up to indicate, _message received._

“Girl and a boy they could have the best of both worlds. Tiaras _and_ bowties.”

“But two boys is-”

The debate was cut off by the scream of the bell, conveniently ringing right above where we stood. We jumped and my eyes widened when two little figures in my belly _jolted_ , twirling and writhing against the surface from the deafening noise.

“Liam?” Theo’s brow was worried immediately and he crowded closer to my side while students filtered through the hallways around us. “Li, what is it?”

It took every ounce of self-control I had not to reach down to press my hands over the tumbling babies. I swallowed before letting myself speak.

“The babies, they didn’t like the bell.” I explained at a low whisper. “They’re- _ah, jesus!_ They’re going _nuts_ in there.”

“Can they even move that much at sixteen weeks?” Mason gaped, and Theo gave a scoff.

“These ones can.” He pulled me in by the waist and hugged me, pressing us together and holding me close to generate some form of contact. We stepped to the side of the hallway, leaning against the lockers while we tried to calm down the babies. “Damn, I can feel them. They’re going to have to get used to that noise.”

“Are they all right?” Malia frowned, opening my locker for me and grabbing out the books I needed for first and second periods. “They’re not in trouble, are they?”

I took a deep breath and rested my head against Theo’s chest while his hands rubbed firmly over my lower back, the pressure helping in settling the babies down. The turns and tumbles reduced to soft twitches and nudges inside me.

“They react to sound,” Corey recited for us. “They can hear everything like muffled noise from in there, and sharp noises they’re not used to can startle them.”

“Are they settling?” Mason asked, concerned as the majority of the students around us disappeared for class.

I nodded in relief when the assault against my inner walls stopped, the babies calming down with both Theo and I there together.

“Yeah. Hope that isn’t going to turn into a problem when you’re not here.” I murmured up to Theo, the both of us breaking apart for me to receive my backpack from Malia.

He seemed unhappy with the idea.   
“Let’s hope not.”

“Mr. Dunbar.”

The five of us turned to the feminine voice as it called to us. Ms. Martin smiled pleasantly, approaching in a sleek dress with white pumps that tapped on the tiles. Her eyes moved over Theo and I softly before she came to a stop at our group.

“Good morning, Ms. Martin.” I said softly, watching while she glanced down to my belly.

“How are you feeling?” She asked, looking to my friends. “This lot has been excited over your return for weeks now, I’m sure they threw quite the welcome party.”

I couldn’t help but grin at the amused expressions on my friends’ faces, nodding to my principal politely.

“I’m good. A little anxious, but…”

She nodded understandingly.   
“To be expected. If it helps, all school staff are alert and on-guard. If anyone should bother you, it will be dealt with immediately.”

“Thank you.”

She looked to Theo.   
“Are _you_ okay?”

He took a deep breath, biting at his lip from the inside. It was clear what he really wanted to say, and Ms. Martin knew, but he nodded anyway and wrapped a hand around mine with a glum expression. He decided not to mention his displeasure at having to leave me here.

“Fine.”

Natalie gave him a soft, knowing gaze before taking a step back and motioning for us to depart.

“I thought I would just come to check that you were ready to start the first day back.” She told me. “If there’s anything you need, remember that my door is always open.”

“Thank you, Miss.” I nodded, moving off towards the centre of the school with Theo in tow by my hand.

“Have a good day, Liam.”

Theo’s body was heavy with reluctance while my friends and I walked to our first class of the day – Physics. I could tell he was growing anxious about leaving me here, his fingers threading tight into mine and holding me close into his side.

“Are you going to see Coach today?” He murmured into my ear, starting a conversation to distract himself. “Cause you know you don’t have to get stuck into that list right away.”

I shrugged, waving goodbye to Corey and Malia while they branched off to their separate class.

“I just figured I’d get it done first day, so I don’t have it on my mind all week.” I answered. “I know if I don’t do it now, I’ll procrastinate against it.”

Mason was sad with pity beside us.   
“Sucks that you can’t play lacrosse anymore. The team’s gonna suck without you.”

“They’ve got Nolan,” I offered on a sigh. “He’s cut out for leadership, he’ll do good with the team.”

We reached the lab where our Physics class was held, the students having just been let in by the teacher and still settling into their seats.

I turned to Theo while Mason waited at the door for me.

His eyes were dark with his reluctance to leave me, every fiber of his being screaming out to stay and protect me. To keep us close because our bond was still fragile inside us, still afraid that distance meant another month apart.

I reached up to stroke his cheek, forcing him to look at me.

“You got work today?” I asked softly, brows raised slightly in question.

He nodded, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me up close.

“Eight thirty.”

I brushed his hair back affectionately, pushing it into its natural part.

“You’d better get your ass moving, then.” I smiled gently, leaning in to touch my nose to his. “I’ll be okay, Theo. We’ll be texting and Mase is going to stick by my side all day. We just need to relax.”

He nodded, taking a deep breath and doing just that. His eyes fluttered shut for a moment before his thumbs stroked against my back, a hand moving up to hold onto my jaw.

“I love you.” He uttered softly.

I nudged against him, joining our foreheads and smiling.

“I love you, too.”

We kissed, long and slow and trying to make it last within the short time frame I had before the teacher would come out to nag me to take my seat. We pressed tens of tiny, last-minute kisses to each other’s lips as final little forms of affection before I stepped back, our hands staying joined until I got too far away.  

“Have a good day. See you soon, yeah?”

Theo bit his lip again and sighed, nodding when our fingers slipped apart.

“See you soon.”

I kept my eyes on him until Mason and I stepped inside the classroom, my mate’s features slowly being obscured by the doorjamb and disappearing completely with a sad punch to my gut. I turned my head and looked over the classroom while Mason and I walked in, every student’s eyes roaming over me interestedly as we moved up the aisle and took our seats at our assigned lab bench.

I struggled slightly to hop up onto the tall stool, having to lean back a little so I didn’t crush the babies against my thighs. But in doing that, I’d already made my first mistake of the day. And it was a grave one.

Students’ eyes lowered when my hips pushed up, the babies rounding out under the hoodie and hinting that there actually wasn’t much extra room inside at all. Several mouths opened and I froze, my heartbeat rising up my throat when I realised what I’d done. _Oh fuck._

Mason’s hand closed around my arm, pulling me to face the front to avoid the obvious stares from my classmates, his hand closing over mine on the desk when my breaths fell short.

“Breathe.” He counselled me softly while the teacher started his lesson. “It’ll all be okay, I’m right here with you, yeah? No one will do anything.”

My eyes were wide on the textbook before me, my head shaking softly.

“They know.” I whispered. “They know, and now the whole school’s gonna know in minutes. I was supposed to _hide this_ for as long as possible, Mase.”

His thumb brushed over the back of my hand.   
“They were going to find out someday. Better they find out now so they get over it earlier, huh? It’s all going to be okay. Just try to relax.”

I did as he suggested, closing my eyes and breathing through the panic. I heard whispers and the tap of students’ fingers on their phone screens as they texted their friends about me, but I grounded myself and blocked them out.

Mason was right. Better they find out now, while it’s still early. By the time I was a total whale, no one would give two shits. _I hope._

I focused on the weight of the babies in my belly, comforted myself with them. I had such an incredible life outside these school walls and whatever happened in here was insignificant to that life. These babies were mine and Theo’s and no one could change that, not with their stares and whispers and dirty looks.

Affection rose up inside me when I felt our big baby stir, just a slight little sensation like he was telling me that I’d be okay. That we were tough, stubborn devils and these people couldn’t scare us. I almost reached down to pat him, to thank him for his little encouragement before our Physics teacher appeared beside the desk with a list of notes for the work I’d missed.

The morning went by somewhat quietly, most students deciding to keep their opinions down to mere whispers while the entire school found out I had a swelling belly underneath the puffy hoodie I wore. No one made loud comments and no one stood in our way as Mason and I moved from our first period class to the second, and the constant little press on my pelvic bones stayed there to remind me that I was strong enough to deal with the shit I knew they would eventually throw my way.

I kept relatively calm as the minutes turned into hours that Theo and I had been apart, just focusing on my catch-up work and texting him under the desk when he replied. It turned out that the work I’d missed was fairly straightforward, just like Ms. Martin had said it was. If I concentrated well enough, I could finish all the missed theory and questionnaire sheets by the end of the week, which meant I’d be ready to start on my assessment as soon as winter break started.

The babies still stirred slightly when the bell rang for recess, but nowhere near as frantically as they had upon first hearing it. Mason, Malia and I packed our books away and made our way out from World History, heading gratefully to the lunchroom. Students stared the entire way, of course. Several of them weren’t even interested in my face, most just staring down at my belly to try and see the roundness from behind Theo’s hoodie.

“This is ridiculous.” Malia muttered while we moved, walking behind me while Mason walked in front of me. “Don’t they know how to mind their own business?”

“Clearly not.” I sighed, pretending to reach up to scratch at my chin but actually just lifting my sleeve for a lungful of Theo’s scent from the material. “Don’t stress over it guys, I can handle it.”

“You shouldn’t _have to_ , that’s the point.”

We made it into the lunchroom without any dramas, finding the table Corey had snagged in the corner. But I slowed down when I noticed Nolan sitting with him, blue eyes on me with his arms folded on the table. Mason slowed up next to me.

“He’s okay,” He reassured me. “He’s been asking us when you were coming back.”

“What’s the bet he _knows._ ” I muttered, turning my back to the table so I didn’t have to feel Nolan’s stare on my face. “He’s probably there to humiliate me, to gain back his popularity or something.”

“No one’s humiliating anyone.” My best friend said firmly, holding me by the shoulders. “Liam. We’ve got you.”

I nodded, hating myself for how little faith I had in my friends. They’d been there for me for years and now that Theo was my mate, I’d put all my trust in him while taking it out of everyone else.

I took a deep breath and sighed, letting my shoulders loosen under his hands.

“Yeah. You do.”

Mason smiled, turning me around and keeping a hand over my shoulder as we joined Malia, Corey and Nolan at the table. I slung my bag down to the floor and made to sit down when Nolan stood, eyes on me.

I froze and waited, heart pounding in my chest, for him to do something. My friends watched from their seats but none seemed too worried for my safety.

“Can I talk to you?” Nolan asked, his voice even and kind. His eyes sparkled with genuine concern. “Like, alone?”

I looked to my friends hesitantly, all three of them nodding reassuringly before I accepted slowly, moving away from the table behind Nolan while he led me towards the doors to the terrace. I buried my hands into the front pocket of my hoodie and clenched my fists inside, preparing myself to fight if I needed to. It was deserted outside due to the cold, except for one small group of Asian girls at a table twenty yards away.

Nolan led me to the farthest corner and turned to me, his eyes searching over my face before he looked down to my hoodie.

“What the hell happened to you?” He asked with a slow shake of his head. “You… you disappeared after that day you were sick and- it’s been a _month._ ”

I bit my lip from the inside, chewing on it before looking away.

“I know.”

“And then I heard you were _kidnapped,_ taken by hunters.” He stepped closer, blue eyes hard and worried on mine. “Is it true?”

I stepped back to regain the distance between us.

I couldn’t open my mouth to answer him, the memories floating back through my mind when he renewed the idea that _yes,_ I had actually been kidnapped and held hostage by hunters. It was real and it happened, and now I was back but I was very different. I’d spent so much time telling myself I didn’t need to be afraid of the past anymore, but in the process I’d let myself think that it never actually happened.

But it did.

“What did they do to you?” Nolan asked in a whisper, his light brows furrowed while he looked over me. “Did they torture you? Did they experiment on you? You’re _different,_ Liam.”

“What do you _expect?”_ I blurted aloud, my eyes hard on the pavement below us.

Nolan’s shoulders loosened slightly and he realised he was being too invasive. He took a step back to give me space.

“Look, I’m sorry. Everyone’s just been worried about you. We all just kept hearing different stories and…”

I looked up finally, meeting his eyes slowly.   
“And which one do you believe?”

He stared for a long moment before his mouth fell open. The words came one second later.

“Is it true?” He whispered. “You can… get _pregnant?”_

I nearly drew blood biting down on my lip. _Don’t you dare panic. Don’t you dare cry._

My fists tightened in my jumper and I grit my teeth.

“Yeah.” I nodded eventually.

Nolan’s eyes lit up, widening at me before he looked down to my belly again.

“You… so what everyone’s talking about is true?” He pointed briefly, discreetly. “You’re actually…?”

I sighed, turning and lowering myself down onto the wooden edge of the garden up by our waists. Nolan stepped closer, following but not quite sure if I would let him sit next to me.

“The hunters, they knew.” I told him lowly, looking down at the black Vans Theo had laced up for me this morning. “They knew what I was, what I had on the inside. They were an infertile couple so they planned to use me to make a family.”

The boy’s face dropped in front of me and I heard his heartbeat stutter.

“They _did that_ _to you?”_

I shook my head.   
“They couldn’t. I was already pregnant.”

I waited while he put it together, could almost hear when his mind reverted back to the day I’d been sick on the lacrosse field. He made sense of it very quickly, that heartbeat quickening in shock while he stepped forward and bent over slightly to keep his voice close.

“Theo?”

I nodded. My heart squeezed just to think about him.

“How did he take it? How long…”

“He was fine.” I sighed softly. “I’m only meant to be nine weeks but they grew really fast, they’re at sixteen weeks instead.”

“ _They?”_ His eyes somehow grew wider and looked down again. “How many _are there?”_

Despite the conversation, I huffed a short laugh.

“Two. Fraternal twins.”

Nolan slumped onto the ledge beside me, his breath blowing out through pursed lips while he shook his head in surprise.

“Jesus. So… I guess that means no lacrosse.”

I nodded slowly, disappointedly.   
“You guess right. I’m going to step down as co-captain today, let Coach know as soon as possible.”

“Step _down?_ ” The boy frowned beside me. “But you… well, I guess you can’t actually _play_ but you don’t think you can work something out? Like help from the sidelines?”

I shook my head, scuffing my shoe against some moss growing between the bricks.

“It’ll just be better if I step down altogether. With all of this and school I won’t even have the time – not to mention I can’t even take the stairs anymore without wanting to pass out.” I looked to him, nodding supportively. “You’ll do amazing with the team anyway. You’ve been great all fall.”

He shrugged sadly, looking down to where his fingers were twined in his lap.

“Just won’t feel the same without you, I guess. It’ll be different.”

We were quiet for a moment and I realised why he seemed so down about it – I was his first friend. His _only_ friend.

Even though the lacrosse team had grown close to him, they weren’t really his friends. I had been the first person to accept him, the only one who paid any attention to him before Monroe got to him. And now that she was gone, my friends and I were the only ones.

It made sense why they had been so cool about having him at their lunch table. He must have grown fonder of them while I’d been gone, and now I felt bad for believing he was only there to humiliate me in front of the entire school. He’d been there because he _cared._

I took a deep breath before I finally agreed with him.

“Everything’s different.” I gave myself a moment before standing up and motioning over my shoulder at the door. “Hey, I need to eat. You wanna come sit with us? You and I have English Lit after recess, we can walk together with Malia.”

Something in his expression lifted and the blue of his eyes lit up softly.

A slight smile touched his lips and he nodded, standing and moving to walk at my side with a happier smell to his skin. We didn’t get to make it back to my friends’ table, however, because there was a group of people already waiting for us in the cafeteria.

The jocks of the senior class formed an intimidating barrier in the centre, not entirely blocking our way through but serious enough to keep us from trying. Nolan stiffened beside me and I rolled my eyes at the show.

“You think you’re so special, don’t you Dunbar?” A rough voice called out.

Nolan’s hand closed around my wrist, tugging gently.

“Liam-”

“It’s okay.” I told him. “Let them have their fun.”

“We can easily go another way-”

“No. Don’t give them the satisfaction. Just stand and take it.”

I heard the argument in his breath but it was cut short when the group of basketball players started to approach. I felt his fingers tighten around my wrist but I stayed firmly in my spot, putting a shoulder in front of Nolan to make him feel a little safer.

“But you’re not.” The dark-haired ringleader finished his sentence from before, stepping up until there were mere yards between us. “You’re just a _freak._ ”

I never let my eyes slip from his, my jaw set and my breaths even.

“What the _fuck_ , Blair, just leave him alone!” Malia called out from behind the group, she, Corey and Mason visible trying to shove their way past. “He’s done _nothing_ to you!”

Blair smiled and tilted his head at me.   
“Feisty little wolf-girl, isn’t she? I’d hate to see what the school would do to her if she used her powers to attack my friends.”

“You’d hate to see what _I’d_ to your pompous _ass_ if you lay a finger on Liam!”

“Exactly!” Mason tried to back her up. “Think of your ass, Blair. Does it really need the extra deformity?”

I watched while the jock’s jaw ticked, the smile on his face having turned firm. He stepped forward two more paces, coming close enough that I could smell the disgust on him. Nolan tugged on my wrist once more but I stayed put.

Blair shook his head at my raised chin, looking me up and down.

“Think you’re so tough and stubborn, don’t you Dunbar?” He tilted his head with an idea. “Or, maybe we should call you _Mumbar._ The name will fit nicely in a few months when you look like a whale, all swollen with that murderer’s baby.”

A low chorus of laughter came from the group behind him, a handful of the students in the cafeteria joining in.

I lifted a brow in nonchalance.

“Keep trying.” I hissed.

“Oh, I will.” He stepped even closer, moving right up until our shoes almost collided at the toe. I heard Nolan’s heartrate skyrocket and his fingers squeezed my wrist. “I’ll keep trying until you understand just how disgusting you are. I mean, what _normal_ guy can get _pregnant?_ ”

“A fucked up werewolf who takes it up the ass.” One of Blair’s followers provided, earning another round of laughter from the cafeteria. “I bet he’s loose. Bet that ass is hungry for Raeken’s filthy spunk.”

My breaths grew harsher, the fury rising in my chest for the way they were talking about Theo. Not about me, they could say all they wanted about me. But Theo… they wouldn’t get away with it.

But there was one problem. I couldn’t fight.

I had the babies to protect and fighting this guy meant fighting his whole team – which I could probably do with Malia’s help if I shifted. But I couldn’t shift. The most I could do was let my eyes turn to gold, so I did. My wolf would surface in any way he could.

Blair’s face lit up with excitement at the colour change, the crowd of jocks behind him eliciting low, _“Ooooh”_ s when the fight flared inside me.

“Leave Theo out of this.” I glared while my body temperature rose.

“ _Theo,”_ Blair repeated the first name with revulsion. “Is the reason ‘this’ happened. He’s got everything to do with it.”

“Leave him, _out of this.”_ I repeated once more.

I received a mocking smile.

“What are you going to _do_ about it? Are you going to fight us? With a gut like that?”

“Liam, walk away.” Nolan shuddered from over my shoulder. “Please, you’re going to get hurt.”

I ignored him, seething into Blair’s face with all the fire in my veins. My phone started to vibrate in my pocket, a constant buzzing against my leg that wouldn’t stop – and I knew it was Theo. I knew he could feel me and he was probably freaking the fuck out.

“What are you gonna do, belly boy?” Blair murmured down to me, our heads almost touching. The most infuriating smile was on his lips and I wanted so badly to bust it with my fist. “You gonna lose control? Let that IED kick in? We all know you want to.”

“ _Liam.”_

My shoulders started to heave with my breaths, the itch burning in my fingertips to let my talons come out.

“How about it, Mumbar? Gonna go into a fit of rage? Take a crowbar to my car?”

“ _Liam,_ don’t do it!” My friends called from behind the basketball team. “You know you can’t!”

Low growls started to rise from my chest. They rumbled through the cafeteria in warning and I felt the babies start to stir in my belly, distressed and upset at the sounds and emotions in my body. I instantly felt bad for upsetting them, feeling my heartrate start to slow in order to settle them down.

I closed my eyes and waited, for either someone to punch me out or for more insults. But neither came. My saviour came in the form of Mr. Lewis from Biology, breaking up the crowd of jocks and stepping between Blair and myself. Several other teachers moved in to deal with Blair’s team while Mr. Lewis confronted him from in front of me.

“Mr. Hunt, that will be quite enough.”

“C’mon, sir,” Blair’s voice had turned light with innocence. “I was just making sure Mumbar knows how disgusting he is.”

“His name is _Liam,_ and you can write one thousand lines on how disgusting your _behaviour_ is for the entire week, after school in my office. How does that sound?”

Blair took several steps back, his face pinched so tight I was sure he would spit.

“Sounds like bullshit. Freaks like him shouldn’t be allowed in this school!”

Nolan pulled me backwards by my wrist while Mr. Lewis pursued Blair with quick steps. The school security moved in and helped to herd the jocks out.

“Let’s make that for the first week back from winter break too, shall we? You’re coming to see Ms. Martin.”

“Sir! _Sir!”_

I took a deep breath, letting my muscles relax when the team was escorted out of the cafeteria. Students were quiet and still staring in shock when Nolan turned me to him. The kid was pale with wide eyes and I could feel him shaking slightly.

“Are you okay?” He asked softly, and I nodded. “They could’ve hurt you, why didn’t you _run?”_

“Because I don’t run.”

“ _Liam._ ” Mason, Corey and Malia finally made their way over, faces flustered and outraged. “Are you all right? Did he hurt you?”

I leaned away from the hands that tried to come up to my face, taking a step back to escape the crowd they’d formed around me. My phone started buzzing in my pocket again.

“I’m _fine.”_ I murmured, drawing it out to find a total of six messages and four missed calls. “Theo’s freaking out, I need to take this.”

My friends reluctantly let me move away from them. I stepped outside the doors back into the terrace and answered the call.

“Before you start yelling at me, I’m fine and so are the babies.”

“ _Liam Eugene fucking Dunbar, if you just got yourself into a fight I’m going to fucking home school your ass!”_

My eyes widened slightly and I bit my lip. _Oh dear._

“I didn’t fight, Theo.”

“It sure fucking _felt_ like it!”

I took a deep breath, pacing and pinching two fingers to the bridge of my nose.

“I almost punched Blair Hunt in the face but I didn’t, I controlled myself. I promise.”

“Who the fuck is Blair Hunt?”

“He’s the captain of the basketball team, some jerk. He called me a bunch of names and tried to push me to lose control but he didn’t touch me. Teachers intervened before he could hurt anyone. I’m fine, I promise.”

I heard a long sigh come through the phone, could feel the worry from Theo in our bond. I really needed to stop scaring him so much.

“I swear to god, you’re going to kill me.” He sounded defeated, tired. “Why was he bothering you in the first place?”

The lip between my teeth was squeezed a little harder and I grimaced before answering.

“The school knows, Theo. They found out.”

“ _What? How?”_

“This morning in Physics,” I whined, really not wanting to argue with him again. “I tried to get up onto the seat and the babies wouldn’t let me so I leaned back and-”

“Oh dear fucking _god.”_ Came the moan of dread from Theo’s end. I could just see the hand he had in his hair and the way he was pacing back and forth out the back of the café. “So they know. The whole fucking school knows.”

I sighed, feeling my heart ache at the stress I was putting him through.

“I’m sorry, Theo.” I murmured. “I didn’t mean to, I swear. It was an accident, I-”

I heard another breath huff from Theo’s lips.

“Li,” He paused, struggling to get his words out. “You… god, I can’t stand it when you talk like that – just hearing that tone in your voice fucking breaks my heart. Stop _apologising_ , baby, you’ve done nothing _wrong.”_

“I ruined everything, I let them find out.” I argued, feeling stupid tears start to prickle behind my eyes. _Stupid fucking hormones._ “On the first damn _day,_ they found out. And now it’s going to be so much harder for you and the pack to protect me and-”

“Liam, _no. Stop._ Take a breath.”

I listened to him, closing my eyes and stopping in my tracks to take a deep breath. I turned my back to the cafeteria doors and lowered a hand over the babies, letting the swell of them under my fingers calm me down. I couldn’t stress, it would only stress _them_.

“I’m just _sorry.”_ I whispered, both to Theo and to them.

“You don’t need to be sorry, baby. Never.” I let his words sink into me in the silence that followed, knowing he was listening to my breaths before he spoke again. “Do you need me to come and get you? What’s happening over there?”

I swallowed, reaching up to wipe at the tears that fell.

“No, um,” I paused to sniffle. “They… the team was taken to see Ms. Martin. Recess is almost over, everyone’s just gone back to staring.”

“And you’re sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine I promise. The babies are good, too. They stopped me from bashing that asshole’s nose in.”

“They _stopped_ you?”

“They started to get upset and I felt awful for it,” I told him softly, looking down to them under the hoodie. “So I calmed down.”

I could almost hear the smile in his voice.   
“So proud of you, Li. Are you _sure_ you don’t want me to come and get you? Cause I can.”

“Nah, I’ll be all right. I’ve got Mase and the others.”

“Okay. Well you go get something to eat before break finishes, you need it. Text me, yeah?”

“Yeah. I love you.”

“I love you, too. Bye, baby.”

I hung up, taking a deep breath and pocketing my phone on the way back inside. I only ended up having three minutes to stuff my face with a sandwich before the bell rang and called us back to class. No one made any more advances on me for fear of receiving a week of detention for trying. They just continued to watch every move I made as I walked from class to class.

I managed to find Coach Finstock before fifth period, taking a deep breath and explaining to him that I wouldn’t be able to continue with lacrosse. He stood and stared at me, banana halfway to his mouth before he screwed his face up and pointed out towards the field.

“Very funny, Dunbar. _Go take a lap!_ And all those other laps you owe me! Turned into a fatass over the offseason!”

I tried not to bristle at the insults, Nolan showing up just in time to help me through it.

“Sir, he really can’t. His health won’t allow it, he needs to give up lacrosse.”

“He can’t give up _lacrosse._ ” Coach stepped a little closer, his face turning a little meaner before he barked, “ _Because he’s a lacrosse player!_ He’s the co-captain of the team and there are no _holidays_ for a captain!”

“Coach, you don’t understand-”

“I understand perfectly! Dunbar gained a little weight! He’s embarrassed about revealing that to the team so he’s _quitting!_ ”

I put a hand to my face. Nolan looked to me, exasperated, before glancing down to my belly indicatively. I shook my head, because Coach wouldn’t know what a pregnant belly looked like. He would pass it off as fat.

“Coach, I’m really sorry but I’m serious. I’m stepping down as co-captain and leaving Nolan to lead the team. He’s more than capable of it and I have faith in him-”

“Yeah yeah, very funny, I’ll see you for practice next semester.” He turned his back on us to leave for his office, calling over his shoulder on the way. “ _Lose that gut!”_

I lifted a brow and Nolan and I watched after him.

“Well.” He said. “That went… well.”

I rolled my eyes, turning to walk back to the school building.

“He’ll have to believe it when it comes from Ms. Martin.”

Nolan accompanied me to her office, standing beside me quietly while I explained Coach’s reaction to her. She resolved to issue him with an official notice of my resignation, agreeing that Coach wasn’t really the easiest person to communicate with. We finished our meeting just in time for the bell to ring for fifth period.

The workload wasn’t as overwhelming as I expected it to be. I had one small stack of catch-up work for each class and I was also handed the assignment stimuli to read over and begin when I was ready. Those small stacks of paper were all I needed to work on for the whole week, so I decided I’d keep my head down every day and make my way through them chunk by chunk until I was ready to start writing my essays and reports.

Leaving my last class to find Theo waiting outside the door for me was definitely the best part of my day. I let my backpack drop to the floor and I let out a long breath, putting my arms up and walking into his chest for a big, cosy hug. I inhaled the scent of his skin and felt the brush of his hair against my forehead, comfort flooding through me to have him right there shielding me from the annoying people watching me.

“Hey baby.”

I smiled against his shoulder.   
“Hey.”

We broke apart and he pressed a kiss to my forehead, bending down to shoulder my bag and leading me down the hallway by my hand.

“How did the rest of the day go? No dramas?”

I shook my head, swinging our hands softly between us.

“None. I’m super hungry, though. Kinda feel like trying chicken again.”

Theo hummed in warning.   
“You sure? Could be dangerous for your gag reflex.”

I smiled, nudging at him while we left the building and headed out to the truck amidst all the other students.

“I wanna try. I’ve missed having it to put on sandwiches.”

“Mhmm. I’ll have a bucket ready, then.”

Thankfully, the bucket wasn’t needed. The smell sort of made me unsure at first, but when I cut my losses and stuffed a piece into my mouth, the taste was welcome. So chicken was finally back on the table, just not crumbed and fried in butter. That probably wouldn’t come back for a while.

The babies moved for Theo again that night, but our big baby wasn’t as rough as he had been a few nights ago. It seemed as though Theo’s soft murmurs and pleas actually worked, because the both of them had been nothing but gentle ever since. It was quite incredible, really.

They loved it when he read to them, or just when he moved down to press a few kisses to them and tell them how his day was. We found ourselves slowly falling deeper and deeper in love with them, tiny little personalities already beginning to shine out to us. We still didn’t have a clue about our little one, whether it was a he or a she. All we knew was that it was the gentlest baby ever.

 

Day two back at school was slightly less dramatic.

No one approached in the cafeteria to antagonise me, and Blair and his basketball team grudgingly kept their distance from our table. I assumed Ms. Martin had been relentless in her punishing – writing lines for two weeks might not have been all of it. The staff protected me just as she said they would, but there were still some things they couldn’t shield me from.

They couldn’t shield me from the hundreds of stares and filthy looks that many students graced me with upon passing by. They also couldn’t stop the many names I was called in the hallways.

Plenty of people took up the names Blair had called me, pushing past me with mutters of, _“Freak,”_ or, _“So disgusting,”_ or that ridiculous _Mumbar_. I also got a generous serving of, “ _Whale,”_ and, “ _Belly boy.”_

It was relentless and as the day wore on, the name-calling grew more aggressive and voluptuous. Once students realised the teachers couldn’t stick _everyone_ in detention for insulting me, their mutters turned to yells and screams and chants through the school. Mason, Corey, Malia and Nolan stuck by me as well as they could and accompanied me to every single class, but soon people were going to start getting physical. We all knew it would only be a matter of time.

Truthfully, I thought I could take it.

I thought that their name-calling and derogatory terms were merely empty words, turning into dust upon reaching my ears in the halls. But as the day wore on, it started sinking in. The entire school _hated_ me. They wanted to hurt me, to drill it into me how disgusting I was to them. A boy who was pregnant – apparently it was a crime to be able to bring life into the world when no one else like you _could._

I’d refrained from mentioning any of it to Theo all day, knowing that it would only worry the shit out of him to learn that the entire school was against my existence. Hearing the names they were calling me would crush him and I knew he would do something irrational and stupid when his instincts roared to make them all _pay._ So I kept it out of our texts, pretended everything was fine.

I thought I could handle it, but my shield of indifference finally cracked in our last class of the day.

It was Biology. I was seated next to Corey in the lab while Mr. Lewis handed out the semester planner for after Christmas break. All students looked upon it and grumbled; even Corey sighed beside me. I wasn’t paying too much attention, busy with my head down in the catch-up work before me. It wasn’t until Mr. Lewis spoke that my interest was drawn away from my textbook.

“Oh, yes, have a good whinge.” He nodded out to the class, putting his hands up in false atrocity. “Get it all out now, so I don’t have to hear it next semester. I hope you all enjoyed your semester on anatomy, because that is where the easy stuff ends.”

I wanted to smile at the way he was speaking to the bunch of assholes, but the expression was wiped off my face when a boy in the back corner spoke up.

“I think Mumbar experimented a little too much with his anatomy, sir.”

Other students joined in before Mr. Lewis could intervene.

“Yeah, he took your class too literally sir!”   
“He’s a revolting science experiment gone wrong.”   
“So disgusting. He’s going to get so much fatter.”

The class broke into a low chorus of laughter, save for one furious Corey beside me. His fists clenched on the desk and I could feel the urge to fight back starting to scream in his veins. I recognised it only too well; I’d felt it countless times already.

My classmates’ words swirled in my mind like pollution in the form of thick black smoke, the hissed syllables of _anatomy, disgusting, revolting, fatter_ all poisoning me and running through my bloodstream to finally reach my heart. The tears stung and welled up fast while everyone laughed and scorned at me from my right, and I had to put my elbow up to cover the side of my head with my sleeve to hide the way my eyes squeezed shut in pain. It hurt inside me, the protective walls I’d put up having been brought down by their ruthless hate at last. They got what they wanted; they were breaking me.  

Corey stood up from beside me with a loud scrape of his chair on the linoleum, his eyes narrowed and dark in his anger. The class quietened at the sudden scream of his chair on the floor and turned to look at him while he seethed at them.

“Shut _up_ , you horrible, heartless _cunts!_ You’re _assholes, all of you!”_

My eyes widened and I jumped immediately at his sharp, utterly unexpected words. I tugged at his sleeve until he sat back down, the swell of his lips pulled in tight while he tried to rein in the burning anger. His breaths were harsh and furious while I laid a palm over his wrist.

“Corey.” I murmured while Mr. Lewis scolded the other kids in Corey’s wake. “It’s okay. Cool it.”

He shook his head, looking down to where my hand rested upon his skin.

“It’s _not.”_ He muttered back, trying to take deep breaths to calm himself. “This is bullshit, they’ve been ruining you all day – and _don’t_ try to pretend otherwise, Liam. You think we can’t feel it when you suppress the tears?”

I took a deep breath and let go of him, looking down to my work to escape the knowing gaze beside me. I couldn’t respond, reaching up to rub the last of the wetness away from my eyes as the class was quietened down.

“The school needs to do something about it.” Corey continued beside me with a grudging, hateful shake of his head. “They’re letting these kids walk all over you. If Theo knew-”

“I _do_ know.” Came the familiar voice from the classroom door, and my heart sunk.

_Oh no. Last class of the day. He was waiting out in the hall._

I stood and moved across the room immediately to press two firm hands flat upon Theo’s chest before he stalked in and massacred the class. His skin was burning under his t-shirt and his fists were clenched hard while his eyes burnt golden with hate for every student he could find.

“Theo, _no, please._ ” I stared up into his face, trying to bring it down so I could calm him. He wouldn’t budge, his jaw working firmly while he clenched his teeth. “Theo, you have to listen to me.”

“Mr. Raeken, you’re not supposed to be in here.”

“I don’t _care._ ” Theo snapped at Mr. Lewis, his biceps swelling when he squared his shoulders and growled out into the classroom to terrify the students who’d insulted me. “Corey’s right, you’re a pathetic bunch of worthless _cunts._ ”

“ _Theo.”_

“Liam is so much fucking stronger than any of you. You’re all _weak,_ you prey on the insecurities of other people because it’s _trend_ and because you’re so fucking disgusted by your own dull personalities-”

“ _Theo!”_

“Mr. Raeken!”

“ _Fuck you!”_ He yelled at them all.

“Mr. Raeken, you need to leave.”

My mate grabbed my wrist, glaring at the teacher with fury.

“Oh, I am. And I’m taking Liam with me.”

He turned on his heel and tugged me out of the room, grabbing hold of the door and swinging it shut so hard behind us that the glass window shattered on impact. Mr. Lewis stared from the other side as the glass fell to the floor, his eyes wide with shock while my mate seethed and growled in absolute wrath.

I froze, my heartbeat reaching a new high since being rescued from the Burnetts.

Theo merely lifted his hands in nonchalance, _oh well_ screaming from his behaviour. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and steered me away, his footsteps hard and quick in the hallway while he led me north. Several classroom doors were open and crowded with staring teachers and students as we went.

“Theo,” I panted, grabbing onto his arm as I struggled to keep up. Pain started to twinge in my lower back and I dug my nails in with a grunt. “ _Theo, stop.”_

He whirled around to face me, the worry and anger bright in his eyes. He looked down over me while I bent over to catch my breath, breathing through the ache in my spine while the babies stirred inside me.

“Were you ever planning on _telling me_ that the entire school has been trying to rip you apart?!” He cried hysterically, that face taut with betrayal and protectiveness. “How can the school let them get away with something like this?!”

I shook my head, stepping back to lean against the wall behind me while I avoided eye contact with him.

“They can’t punish every single student for calling me _names,_ ”

“ _Yes,_ they fucking _can!_ They _should!_ They swore to protect you, to keep you safe!”

“They swore to make sure no one _touched me._ Mr. Lewis was defending me before you came in, you didn’t need to burst in and cause a fucking _scene!”_

“What else was I supposed to do?!” He almost yelled, putting his arms out and stepping closer to prove his point. “They were _hurting you,_ they-”

I backed away from him, wrapping an arm around the babies and moving further along the wall down the hallway to keep my distance at his aggression. It was an instinctual movement, to protect the babies even though it was _Theo_ and I knew he’d never hurt me.

His eyes softened at the fear in my body language and his anger seeped away almost immediately. He reached a hand out while I watched him warily, taking a deep breath and moving closer slowly.

“Li?” I let him come, trying to breathe evenly to lower my speeding heartbeat. The remorse in his expression almost hurt me physically. “Liam, I’m sorry. I… I got too mad. I never meant to scare you.”

I let my breath out in one deep rush, relinquishing my hold over the babies and pushing off the wall towards him. I stepped into his arms tiredly and wrapped my own around his neck, burying my face into his collar and breathing him in while all the different emotions ran through me. Lingering sadness for the names I’d been called in Biology, shock for Corey’s and Theo’s reactions, exhaustion from enduring the entire day and worry over my mate’s actions.

He felt them all, holding me close and pressing apologetic kisses to my throat while the babies squirmed and nudged against the surface at him. They were feeling us, too. Everything we experienced affected them, whether we wanted it to or not.

Theo’s scent was so tense around me, filled with sorrow and stress while he thought on and on about both himself and the kids in the school who wanted to ruin me.

“I’m sorry.” He whispered against my skin with a rub of his thumbs into my lower back.

I pressed an identical, apologetic kiss to his own throat before nodding softly.

“I’m sorry, too. I should’ve told you.”

He sighed, pulling back just enough to run his fingers under my lashes to catch the stressed water that seeped from them.

“You were only trying to stay strong. Protect me from the anger. I know what you’re like.”

He _did_ know. I’d done the same thing only months ago to protect Scott from the fear of the Burnetts. It was something that never ended well and I needed to find a way to stop, to open up and ask for help instead of constantly bearing the weight of the world on my own shoulders. I was a stubborn idiot.

The both of us took deep breaths and Theo slouched against me.

“Do you think the school is going to keep me out?” He murmured, reaching up to stroke over my face. “I kinda lost it.”

I shrugged unsurely.   
“No idea. I think maybe we should see Ms. Martin, though. Before anyone else brings the story to her from the wrong viewpoint.”

He nodded to agree, but neither of us moved. He just looked down over my features with a stroke of his thumb to my lower lip.

“Are you okay, Li?”

I shut my eyes and nodded, relief flooding through me just to feel his touch. The babies were calm inside me once more.

“Yeah. Now I am.” I looked over my shoulder, back down the hall to where my Biology classroom was. “My bag and coursework is still in class.”

He took my hand and started gently pulling me along.

“Text Corey, ask him if he can drop it into the administration office on his way out. You’re not going back in there.”

I pulled my phone from my pocket and did so, trusting Theo to lead me in the right direction without letting me trip over. I shot the text to Corey, receiving a reply almost instantly.

_ Corey: _ _Sure thing. Dude, Theo was fierce. Everyone was basically shitting themselves after he left. Hope you don’t get into any trouble._

_ Liam: _ _Ditto, you called the class a bunch of heartless cunts. You could get suspended._

_ Corey: _ _It was worth it. The expressions on their faces when the truth hit them between the eyes – golden. I’ve always got your back, Liam._

I smiled softly, sending back a few x’s before Theo and I entered the administration office and spoke to Cheryl behind the front desk. She phoned through to Ms. Martin and the woman came out of her office within minutes, a bright, concerned flare to her eyes that told us she’d already heard about what happened in Biology.

“Please take a seat.” Was all she said, holding the door open and shutting it firmly behind us when we entered and did as she asked. “What do you have to say for yourself, Theo? Your behaviour, from what Mr. Lewis told me, was abhorrent.”

“ _My_ behaviour?” He repeated in disbelief. I shut my eyes and slouched into my chair as he began. “Your entire _school_ has been fucking disgusting!”

“ _Language,_ Mr. Raeken.”

“You should stop focusing on my language and look at that of your students’! They’ve spent the whole day trying to tear Liam apart! They call him revolting, disgusting, whale, freak, belly boy, _Mumbar…_ ” My eyes squeezed shut tighter and I grit my teeth as the names fell from Theo’s lips. “They’re making inappropriate comments in class and your staff are doing _nothing_ to stop it. Is that how you want Liam to suffer through the last semester of senior year?”

“It is _not,_ but-”

“Because that’s how it’s going to look for him if you continue to let these kids hurt him. He’s only just started to come to terms with all of this, just started to feel comfortable in his own skin again and your students are going to put him in a mental institution.”

I reached out a hand to close it around his wrist in the chair parallel to mine, my eyes pleading with his to _please stop._ The tears were welling up and shimmering on my lids, threatening to fall if he said one more word. It wasn’t because I disagreed with him, it was because everything he was saying was the truth. And the truth always hurt.

His hand caught mine instead and he threaded our fingers together, squeezing and silently telling me that he wasn’t going to let these kids get away with this. He was fighting for me because I couldn’t, I wouldn’t.

“Before you go any further,” Ms. Martin leaned forward behind her desk. “I would like to inform you that I had _no_ idea these insults were circulating our school.”

“ _Sure_ you didn’t – surely you must’ve heard it from those self-absorbed fucksticks you call a basketball team.”

_“Theo.”_

“I did have a stern conversation with those particular senior boys, but I did not hear any names of the sort. I’m not saying I don’t _believe you._ I do. But you cannot blame my staff for not sending every single student on campus to my office for calling Liam a name.”

“Then what, are you just going to let them do this to him? Because I will take him out of this damn school and teach him myself if I have to, I don’t care if it’s not legal.”

“I would advise you to abstain from making such drastic decisions.” Ms. Martin counselled calmly. “I’m _not_ planning on letting this behaviour from the students go unpunished and I will make sure that the lot of them have a very stern talking to. I’ll also be sending letters home to their parents to inform them of their children’s behaviour while at school.”

“Sending letters will only raise questions, the parents will find out about Liam too if they haven’t already. They’ll attack him, I know they will.”

“Then it will make the decision easy for me to exclude them from our school community.” Ms. Martin lifted a brow in determination. “If I catch any students or parents harassing Liam from this day forward, they will have me to answer to. Their enrolment in our school will depend on their behaviour, I assure you.”

My eyes widened and I looked from Theo’s pleased expression over to Ms. Martin’s one of seriousness. My mouth dropped open and I shook my head.

“You can’t just expel kids because of me.”

“Harassment and bullying is not tolerated under my watch, Liam.” Natalie explained softly. “You are a student who has experienced more trauma than any of those children could even comprehend, and I have promised to protect you from anything in this school that could worsen your mentality or put your wellbeing in danger.”

“But you’ll be losing students… you can’t do that just to make sure I don’t get called fat every day.”

“I have the last say in this school and I will expel anyone I see fit. The loss of such disrespectful young men and women will be a welcome relief rather than a deficit to our numbers.” She turned to Theo. “As for your outburst, Mr. Raeken… if it happens again, I will be forced to prevent you from entering the school grounds. Threatening students and destroying our property is unacceptable.”

To my surprise, Theo nodded without argument beside me. He stood and turned to me with a hand held out.

“I’ll be sure to wait until they’re out of your care before giving them the earbashing they deserve.” He responded smartly, earning a sigh from my principal and me as he helped me to my feet. “And don’t suspend Corey for what he said. He was only trying to defend Liam.”

It was one thing I agreed with, nodding at Ms. Martin to ask the same of her. She merely stood and led us to the door, holding it open and gesturing for our departure.

“Mr. Bryant will be punished accordingly for his actions. I will try to be lenient on him.”

“Thank you.” I nodded softly, receiving a nod back while Theo pulled me out into the administration office.

The door closed behind Ms. Martin and we spotted Corey waiting in the foyer for us. He handed me my bag with a sympathetic expression, helping me shrug it on before walking out onto the footpath with us.

“How’d it go?” He asked, waving Mason over from the front doors. “Did you get banned from the school?”

“No.” Theo shook his head, pulling me into his side to keep me warm in the frozen air. “Just got a warning. Martin reckons she’s going to crack down on everyone who’s bothering Liam.”

Corey lifted his brows as Mason joined us with a smack of his lips to the former’s cheek.

“How is she planning on doing that? She would have to literally follow him around and take down the names of every single student.”

Theo and I shrugged.

“No idea. I’m keen to see if she actually follows through.”

“ _Theo.”_

“What? I am.”

“Yeah, I’m with Theo on this one.” Mason nodded, slinging an arm around his boyfriend’s shoulders. “Since you came back, school’s been nothing but hell for you. No one’s done anything to help you besides Mr. Lewis.”

“Exactly.” Corey agreed, giving my mate all the satisfaction he needed. “She said she’d make sure you weren’t harmed. Now we’ll see if she’s full of shit or not.”

Theo sent me a triumphant smirk, his eyes alight with smugness when my friends agreed with him. I sighed and shoved at him, almost tripping him over on the footpath before we reached the truck.

I opened the passenger side door and unshouldered my bag to dump in the footspace, waving over my shoulder at Corey and Mason while Theo attacked me with a duck-and-hug around my waist.

“ _Ah,_ you’re on my _foot._ Fucking hell, Theo.” I grunted, looking down while my mate removed his size elevens from my toes before watching my friends walk away. “See you guys tomorrow.”

“Bright and early.” Mason confirmed with an enthusiastic wave, his side glued to Corey’s while they walked. “Look after the blueberries!”

I turned my head to address the Chimera wrapped around my middle from the right, shaking my head at the stupid smirk on his lips.

“You’re a pain.” I murmured, unable to resist a grin when he pressed a loud kiss to my cheek before helping me up into the truck.

“That’s what you get for nearly tripping me over.” He hummed from the footpath, fastening the safety belt over my belly and running a palm over the swollenness affectionately.

My nerves tingled at the touch and he knew it, the dumb smug smile shining up at me before he pressed a kiss to my palm and shut the door. He drove us home, stopping to fulfil my craving for KFC on the way, and we spent the afternoon in a maybe-not-so-healthy mixture of sex and coursework. Strangely enough, it helped me focus.

Sure it would scar someone for life if they were to walk in on us, naked together on my study chair and fucking slowly while I did my Biology work, but that was precisely why we lived alone together. We could _do_ this and feel no urge to hide from anyone. Plus my sex drive had boosted over the past five days so all of this felt _really_ fucking good. I suppose I had pregnancy hormones to thank for it.

 

The next morning we woke together in our usual tangle of hot, naked limbs and exchanged sleepy kisses before forcing ourselves to get up to start the day. It was a little easier to wake up after having slept for so long curled up to Theo; we’d drifted off to sleep fairly early and the babies were thanking me for it.

They rolled and nudged up at the surface when we stepped into the shower, both of them energetic and eager to say hello to us from inside. They felt a little heavier this morning, the rise of my belly looking a little fuller from up at my belly button. I wasn’t quite sure how it could _be_ any fuller because it already felt so crowded in there, but I knew that in a few months, this would be child’s play.

The babies would be seventeen weeks tomorrow, unless they’d somehow had another growth spurt and skipped a few more weeks. The time was going quicker than I imagined, but it was also going slow in the respect that I still had two entire days left at school after today. I groaned about it all morning until we left, wincing upon getting up into the truck at the sudden ache low in my belly.

Theo paused, watching me with concerned eyes and lifting a hand to the bulge.

“What is it?” He asked slowly, looking between the babies and my eyes from the garage floor beside the truck. “Li?”

I laid a hand over his and drew it further down to where it was fullest above the waist of my sweats.

“Here,” I told him. “It’s aching, stretching.”

My mate’s lip worried on one side sympathetically while his fingers rubbed over the surface from above yet another one of his long-sleeved t-shirts. I wasn’t even wearing a hoodie to conceal it today, opting instead for one of my own zip-up jackets which I left open.

“They’re growing again.” He murmured, leaning closer into my side. “Do you want to take the day off? Just so you’re not going through the pain on your own at school?”

I shook my head, taking a deep breath and reaching down to knead my fingers into the skin where I could feel my uterus stretching beneath.

“I’ll be okay. It should only last an hour or two.”

Theo’s eyes watched up at me uncertainly, hesitation seeping from his skin.

“Are you sure?”

I nodded, running a hand down over his cheek and brushing a thumb under his lip.

“Positive. C’mon.”

He reluctantly shut the door and rounded the truck to jump in, starting the engine and pulling me close into his side before starting the drive to school.

A strange feeling was building in our chests the closer we got, as though something wasn’t quite right. I knew Theo nearly pulled over several times to turn us around and take me home to protect me, but we both told ourselves that there wasn’t anything to be afraid of at the school besides the students that wanted to call me names.

Even the babies knew something was up, the both of them unsettled and stirring around inside me to worsen the stretching ache of my belly. Theo’s hand remained in mine, the back of his knuckles pressed against the babies from my lap until he pulled up in the drop off zone.

That strange feeling grew even stronger when he killed the engine, looking out over the front of the school with a protective hand over me. We couldn’t spot anything from the outside, only seeing the usual bustle of students as they mingled out on the lawn and walked inside to find their lockers. Absolutely nothing was out of the ordinary.

“What the hell?” Theo whispered on a frown, looking to me.

“I don’t know.” I shrugged back, glancing down unsurely when baby A jabbed up against his palm. “He’s stressed. They both are.”

My mate rubbed his hand around and around in soothing circles under my shirt, trying to calm the babies down with the skin-to-skin contact. They settled some, but not much.

Something was wrong, all four of us knew it.

“I want to take you home, Li.” Theo murmured anxiously, holding me close on the seat and wrapping himself around me. “I don’t like this.”

I looked back out towards the front doors, uneasiness spreading through every vein despite the fact that I couldn’t even see what was so threatening. My heartrate was even nervous inside my chest, as was Theo’s.

“Baby, please. That’s two signs already today that you shouldn’t go to school and it’s only a quarter to eight. Let me take you home.”

I was about to shake my head in uncertainty, but the movement was cut short when my eyes flitted over a familiar figure. I let them roam over the short height, the dark ponytail and the angry, expressive brown eyes that I would recognise anywhere.

My hands clenched like vices around Theo’s and my eyes grew wide as I stared in disbelief.

“No…” I whispered, feeling my body start to turn numb while the panic soaked through every inch of me. My heart almost stopped. “Theo…”

My mate was firm with worry beside me, alarm flaring in his body at both the crushing grip I had on his hands and the frantic squirming that suddenly erupted in my belly. His breaths grew frantic and he tried to get me to look at him.

“What? Li, _what is it?_ Why are you so terrified? _Talk to me.”_

The frightened breaths started to leave my throat when the person I’d spotted suddenly found _me._ Their eyes burned fiercer and they started walking down towards the truck in a determined gait that had me flattening into Theo and screeching in fear.

“ _Theo! Protect me! Please!”_

“Baby, _what is it?! Tell me!”_

I pointed shakily over his shoulder while my breaths shuddered and wheezed, and he turned to look at the woman stalking towards us with a jolt of recognition. He held me tight to his body and reached out to lock the doors of the truck with lightning speed.

I trembled and gasped against him in shock, fear rolling over me in relentless waves before I could get the words out. He didn’t even need to hear them, because he knew. The firm, steel grip his body had around mine told me that he was already a shield between me and the person storming down the footpath.

The babies riled inside me and I almost passed out against Theo’s chest. The words finally left my lips.

“ _It’s my Mom_.”


	24. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Theo’s POV

  
“It’s my Mom.”

_Holy shit._

There was only one instance where I’d seen Liam so terrified, and at that time I’d never even actually _seen_ him – he hadn’t been this frantic with panic since the day the Burnetts broke into our apartment to abduct him. Just hearing it through the phone had been enough, but later when he had shown me his every memory concerning the kidnapping, it was so much worse.

He was fucking broken down into a lump of frightened sobs and pleas, and now it was happening all over again. Except this time it was in my arms – and that was both a good thing and a bad thing. Good, because I could protect him this time. Bad, because it was going to break me apart if I saw him like this for too much longer.

“Theo, _please. Please, please, please.”_

I held him tight to my body and shielded him from the view of the woman stomping her way down to the truck, wanting to squeeze my eyes shut but unable to let myself due to the raging alertness in every nerve of my being. I needed to be aware of everything around us. I needed to keep my mate safe.

“I’m right here, baby, I’ve got you.” I held his head to my chest and lowered my lips to his forehead while he panted and shook. “You’re safe, I’ve got you.”

“Don’t let her take me away,” He begged me softly, his fingers gripping onto my shirt and scrambling to find some part of me to hold onto. “Please-”

“ _Liam. Get out here, now!”_

He shrivelled at the tone in his mother’s voice from outside the truck. He sunk even further into my chest and my arms encircled his back. I pulled him as close as I could, the shuddering of his breaths and the speed of his pulse in my ears raising even stronger concern in my blood for his wellbeing, and for the babies’. I could feel them against my thigh, squirming and writhing inside him with a fear just as panicked as his.

“Li,” I leaned back underneath his weight to encourage him to lift his head. His pupils were blown and his face was pale, and all I could do upon seeing it was lower my lips to his to try and make it all better. “Li, what do you want me to do?”

He swallowed, trying as hard as he could to collect his thoughts and rationalise through the panic in his blood. His fingers softened in my shirt and they reached up, sliding up to my collarbones.

“We can drive, leave her here and notify Sheriff Stilinski,” I suggested to give him his options. “Or… _well_ … do you _want_ her gone?”

This was one thing I was unsure about. Liam never talked about his parents, and when he did all I heard was bad memories. I knew that deep down he missed them, but he hated them for what they did to him, for leaving him. I didn’t want to get rid of Janine Geyer unless he truly wanted me to – she was still his Mom after all.

The options flitted across his eyes while he tried to calm his breaths, settling himself down and trying to build his defences back up. I watched while he put on his armour, the pounding of his heart lowering and his pupils softening. He did so damn well.

He laid his head over my chest and looked up at me, nodding.

“I want her gone.” He whispered, both of us jumping when a fist was thwarted upon the passenger side window from the outside. His eyes hardened and he repeated himself for me, certainly. “I don’t want them in my life.”

My mouth opened and he caught the words before they even left my throat. He lifted a hand to my face.

“I’m sure, Theo. Get rid of her.”

I watched him for a moment longer, waiting and searching his face for any signs of doubt or regret. But all I saw was determination, fierce certainty in his decision.

“You don’t want your parents around.” I clarified, just to be sure. “You never want to see them again? Ever?”

He shook his head, his jaw setting stubbornly.

“Never. Not even to see the babies.” His fingers touched my jaw. “Do your worst.”

I almost smiled down at him for how strong he was, lowering my nose to his and giving him a deep, full kiss before I turned to the woman outside my truck. Her eyes roamed over my face angrily, wary as I slid across to the door and swung it open towards her. She took several hasty steps back to avoid being hit with it, obviously on-guard in the face of the stranger who was harbouring her son in his car.

Liam stayed on the seat behind me and I stood in the doorway, squaring my shoulders and making myself the barrier between his mother and him. Janine decided to ignore my existence altogether, looking over my shoulder at her son where he sat curled up defensively on the seat behind me.

“Liam.” She almost spat his name, the anger so thick in her voice you could cut it with a knife. “What the _hell_ have you been doing?!”

I felt him seething, could hear his slow, angry breaths from inside the truck while his mother scolded him. I hoped to god he wouldn’t let her words get to him.

“Why is our house full of strangers, and who is this _person?”_ She indicated to me with disgust, those dark eyes flitting over me with hostility. “James and I received phone calls from the school asking why you missed an entire month of classes!”

Liam stayed quiet behind me throughout her yells and questions, indicating to me with a neon sign that he really didn’t want anything to do with her. He didn’t even want to show her enough respect to respond.

Every student up at the front doors had paused and gathered to watch and listen. The nosey bastards stood in their cliques and groups and whispered while Liam’s mother confronted him in front of the entire school. Even the street was quiet, save for a few cars passing by. It was _not_ what Liam needed, having everyone witness this on top of everything else they had to torment him about.

“Well?!” Janine tried to prompt him from the footpath, angered by his lack of a response. “Do you have anything to say for yourself?! What do you think you’re _doing_ , skipping out on your education?! You _answer me_ when I’m _talking to you,_ you stubborn shit!”

“ _You left him!”_ I roared at her, unable to restrain myself any longer. The way she was speaking to him made me so furious; she spoke like she hadn’t left him. Like she still had the right. “You dumbfuck, _heartless bitch!_ You called him a monster and fucking _abandoned_ him, left him to fend for himself when you _knew_ he needed support!”

Her eyes zeroed in on me with a deathly glare, a familiar fire inside her that I recognised to be the same kind that always lit up inside her son. She didn’t even know my name, but she was already hateful – and that was perfectly fine. I hated her just as much. This was the woman who neglected Li as a child, fucking stuck him in a psychologist’s office and forced him to talk about his feelings, only to pin a label on him and stick him on medication to solve the problem instead of actually fucking helping him.

This was the woman who put so much pressure on him growing up, to be a good example for their family name. This was the woman who fucking told him he had schizophrenic blood, the woman who _abandoned_ him and called him a _monster._ Now she wanted to return, only to yell at him and scold him for missing school? To walk back into his life only to make it worse, like it was still her right? _Fuck no. Not anymore._

“Who the _hell_ do you think you are?!” She tried to make me feel like the outsider. “How _dare you-!”_

“I’m his _boyfriend!”_ I seethed at her, taking a step closer to intimidate her while my eyes glowed gold, indicating to her that I was a werewolf just like her son. “I’m the one who’s been keeping him alive and sane!”

Her face would have distorted with disgust if it weren’t for the shock and complete hate in her posture. Every inch of her went rigid, both at the revelation that I was a ‘monster’ just like Liam, and at the word _boyfriend_ that had come from my mouth.

I could see the way her mind skipped back and forth between the two issues, her eyes widening and her jaw squaring the longer she dwelled on it. The students up at the school didn’t even budge when the bell screamed out for first period to begin.

“ _Boyfriend?”_ She decided to address, the word spitting like venom from her lips. It was the newer information to her, after all. She shook her head slowly, warningly while she looked over my shoulder to Liam. “You’re a _fag?_ My son is _a fag…”_

The monster inside my chest exploded, my wolf completely surfacing to elicit one loud, ferocious roar in her face. _How dare she._

It echoed through the entire street, shook the ground and broke the ice on the trees and grass. It forced Janine’s hair back and she had to take several steps backwards to avoid falling under the power of it.

It was the roar of a wolf so furious, so protective over his mate and their babies. It could’ve crushed her if I let it, but the only thing stopping me was the promise I’d made to Li. I wouldn’t kill. 

“Don’t you _dare fucking talk about him like that!”_ I bellowed at her, taking another step ahead onto the sidewalk while she scampered backwards. “He is _not_ a monster; he’s the most beautiful fucking person in the world – even if he came from someone so fucking _hateful_ like you! He’s _not_ your son, not anymore! You’re fucking _dead_ to him, he _hates you! He wants nothing to do with you!_ ”

Her eyes flicked between me and the beta in the truck behind me, all in a mixture of offence, fury, disgust and shock. _As if_ she couldn’t believe he hated her, after all she’d fucking done to him.

She shook her head eventually, her expression recovering while she took an authoritative step forward with a lift of her chin.

“I will be reporting you as a kidnapper to the Sheriff’s Station immediately,” She managed sternly, almost making me _laugh_ at her nerve. “You’ve brainwashed him! Made him filthy!”

I shook my head right back at her, a sneer finding its way onto my lips.

“He was filthy before you even found _out_ , bitch.” I hissed, tilting my head confrontationally. “Don’t you remember? His blood is disgusting, right?”

Her eyes lit up in recognition and she looked to Liam sharply upon the realisation that he had told me everything. I knew every dirty secret that she’d tried to hide about their family, and now I was spilling it in front of an entire school, to kids with a tendency to text gossip around the town like wildfire. I was going to ruin her. Li asked me to do my worst, so I was. 

“What on earth-?” She tried, but I wouldn’t let her speak.

“You told him that the reason he had IED was because of his father!” I yelled aloud, making sure every kid up at those doors could hear me. “You told him he had tainted blood, and that _that_ was why he wasn’t your perfect little child! But _you_ were the fucking problem! You _never_ cared about him, you never took care of him the way he deserved! _You’re the monster!”_

I could hear Liam’s heartbeat behind me, growing heavier and angrier as the words left my mouth. But he wasn’t angry at me. It was at his Mom.

I was telling her everything he was too light-hearted to say to her. I was giving her the hell she deserved and my words were giving him satisfaction, power. I was relieving him from all the pent-up stress, all the hurt and the anger that he’d kept inside since his parents left – and in the process I was relieving myself, too. Everything he felt, I felt, and I hated the woman before us with every fiber of my being. It felt amazing to finally meet her, to finally get to tell her how much I loathed her for how she treated my mate.

The woman stood there in stiffness, barely-contained rage leaking from every pore in her skin from the disrespect that poured from my mouth. I glared with my wolf bright in my irises, just _daring_ her to do something. Daring her to make a move, to _try me._

And she did the one pathetic, human thing she could.

“ _I’m calling the police.”_ She shook her head, reaching into her handbag for her phone. “Liam, you have to stay away from this… this… _man.”_

“ _Call them.”_ I urged her daringly. “They’ll tell you to leave Beacon Hills before they arrest you for wilful abandonment and issue you with a restraining order.”

Her fingers paused on her phone and she glared up at me with surprised malice, as though she didn’t quite believe me.

“Everyone knows what kind of people you and your husband are,” I hissed, to reinforce the threat I’d laid out for her. “Everyone knows what you’ve done. You have nothing left in this town but enemies, and thousands of them. Quit pretending to be concerned over Liam’s wellbeing and get the fuck out.”

I heard a rustle from behind me and had to resist turning away from Janine to spot the source of the sound. I didn’t trust her enough to take my eyes off her, but the answer came to me in the form of Liam’s voice, the scent of his skin growing closer from inside the truck.

“Why would you care about my safety anyway, _Mom?_ ”

My heart raced and I let myself turn to watch while Liam jumped down from the truck beside me. My eyes widened on his and he got the message immediately, that I didn’t want him out here facing this if he wasn’t ready.

His hand reached over to slide into mine, our fingers threading together while he nodded softly. _It’s okay,_ his body told me in a gentle attempt to calm my worry. _I’m ready._

My fingers squeezed his supportively and I stepped aside, making room for him to stand beside me to face his mother. He leaned into my side and drew my arm around his back to hold his waist. I did so willingly, holding him close and turning my head to close my eyes against his cheek. The scent that filled my lungs from his skin calmed my heart down almost instantly.

“I’m disgusting, right?” He finished finally, letting his jacket fall away from the sides of the babies inside him.

I took a deep breath and held it, holding him firmly to my side while Janine’s eyes directed from her son’s face and his new, older appearance, down to the swollen roundness of his belly beneath one of my shirts.

The way those eyes widened in outrage was one of the most satisfying things I’d ever had the pleasure of watching. I relished in seeing the emotions and reactions passing over her hateful face, one by one. She gaped, words eluding her for a long few seconds before they finally blurted out in a hiss of shock and reprimand.

“What the fuck have you done? What kind of sick experiment is this?!”

I held Liam tighter, my blood singing with the urge to keep him safe in the face of his mother, but his fingers threaded through mine on his waist. He leaned into me in a silent whisper of, _it’s okay. You’ve got me._ And I trusted him, forcing myself to relax and let him say what he wanted to say to her.

He was right; I had him. No one would get past me, no one could hurt him.  

“I’m pregnant, Mom.” He admitted openly, his face and voice a mixture of firmness and honesty. My heart hurt for him, for the fact that he even had to go through something like this with his mother. But he was so strong beside me, so fierce. “Turns out Scott’s werewolf bite made it possible.”  

He put it into simple words for her, yet the woman before us started to sputter mindlessly while she tried to process the situation, nonsense words coming from her mouth in denial as she shook her head. It was clear he’d surprised her more than she ever thought he could. She was at her limit and he had her speechless.

“I’m more than a monster now, aren’t I?” Li spat with a raised brow, putting the words into her mouth with poison on his tongue. “I’m revolting. I’m a freak of a son, a complete, disgusting disappointment. Who would’ve guessed I’d be carrying your grandchildren?”

The sputtering in front of us grew thicker when the words left his mouth. Janine’s eyes shot back down to Liam’s belly and she gaped.

“Chil-child _ren?_ ” She realised the plural meaning to his statement with a pale face. She wouldn’t stop shaking her head, her upper lip curling in disgust when she finally understood. “You’re… _this is…”_

“Save it.” Liam interrupted her sharply, hatefully. “I’ve heard it all, every fucking name you can think of, they’ve called me. Everyone hates me and thinks I don’t belong. But I do belong – right here with my family.”

Janine stared, enraged and confounded when Li finally delivered the final sentence.

“And that family doesn’t include _you.”_

I almost felt the weight physically lift off his shoulders with that one last sentence. He said it, the one thing he’d been dwelling on for so long.

My fingers squeezed his and I couldn’t help but turn my head to press a firm kiss to his temple, my lungs inhaling the scent from his skin while I praised him for being so strong.

_I’m so proud of you._

He took the praise with a shift of his weight, a lean of his shoulder into mine as he accepted the kiss gratefully. The affection overflowed from his body and into mine, and despite the current situation, I felt so goddamn happy. I felt so proud of him.

“You’ve turned _psychotic!_ ” Janine tried to play the old card from their past, but Liam didn’t even flinch in my arms. “You’re deranged, schizophrenic! Just like your father! You’ve let this _person_ experiment on you, turn you into a… a…”

She couldn’t use monster anymore. It had lost its meaning.

“I’m perfectly fucking sane.” Liam argued back with a shake of his head. “I even have ultrasound images provided by a _doctor_ to prove that this is real. But I’m not going to bother, never again. Not with you. You’re not worth the effort and I don’t want you anywhere near me. I want you to _leave_ , and never try to find me again.”

“Liam! _You listen here!_ You need _help;_ you need to get those _things_ out of you, whatever they are! You need a hospital-!”

“And for the record,” He interrupted her once more, casually and informatively. “His name is _Theo._ And he treats me so much fucking better than you ever did.”

“ _Liam,_ you have to-”

“That will be enough, Mrs. Geyer.”

I resisted a smile when Ms. Martin folded her arms to stare Janine down.

“Liam doesn’t ‘ _have to’_ do anything, and you are disrupting his education by being here.”

I felt the satisfaction rising in Liam from beside me, the both of us fighting smirks when school security stepped up on the footpath behind Janine to create a human barrier between her and the front doors of the school. Teachers started herding students inside and relief began to flood through my veins that this was coming to an end.

The words had all been said, everything put out in the open. It was one item on Liam’s list of things to do that he never physically wrote down that he could now cross off, another huge weight that he could take off his shoulders. He had confronted his mother, told her how he really felt. He had literally nothing to hide from her, and now she knew exactly what he thought of her.

The woman was dumbstruck in front of us, hostility flaring in her body language at Ms. Martin’s short words. She did her best to defend her argument, to try and rise above everyone in the fight.

“ _Excuse me?_ I am a _parent_ at this school! How _dare you_ suggest that-”

“You are no longer a parent in this school community.” Ms. Martin intervened sharply, blue eyes flaring with authority. “You made the decision to abandon him, and if it weren’t for my mistake in phoning you, you never would have thought to return. Liam is seventeen years old, he’s found himself a new family and he has made it abundantly clear that he wishes to have nothing to do with you. You need to leave before Sheriff Stilinski is called to come remove you himself, and I assure you, he will not be polite about it. Your reputation in Beacon Hills has preceded you.”

Janine scoffed at the solid blow, incoherent noises leaving her throat in desperation before she indicated to Liam and I with a stiff hand.

“Can you not _see_ what is happening to him?! He’s become a catastrophic _mess,_ and it’s all because of this _boy!”_

Ms. Martin shook her head pitifully down at Janine from up in her high heels.

“You really are exactly as they described you.” She hinted lowly before looking towards Liam. “Whether you decide to believe it or not, what you see is _real._ Liam has been through so much trauma since you abandoned him. You have no idea what he’s gone through or the kinds of things he’s seen, but he is far from psychotic and Theo is a remarkable young man to have been by his side to help him through it. He holds an immense amount of care for Liam, and that’s far more than I can say for the likes of you. Liam’s one of the sanest, most admirable teenagers I’ve ever met. You’ve lost a great deal in ruining your relationship with him, and I hope that regret stays with you for the rest of your life. Please leave, Mrs. Geyer, and do not return to Beacon Hills State High or legal action will be taken to ensure you are kept away. That is a promise.”

Janine shook her head at Natalie in disbelief.   
“You’re all in on this! You’re corrupting him, you’re supporting what this _monster_ is doing to my son! You’re going to pay for it, all of you!”

“He is not your son any longer, Mrs. Geyer.” Ms. Martin stated plainly, stepping across the footpath and turning to face Janine with her back to us, standing in front of us and shielding us from her. It was a bold gesture, but I could feel the warmth that spread through Liam’s chest when she did it. “Please leave.”

I watched while Liam’s mother looked around her, at all the remaining students still staring, at the band of school security officers, at the parents in their cars in the drop off zone, and finally at Ms. Martin while she stood between us. It seemed to dawn on her that she had no place left in Beacon Hills, because the reluctant, vile defeat that spewed from her skin permeated the air thickly around us. She hiked her handbag higher onto her shoulder and took a few steps back, in the direction of the school carpark.

She shook her head scathingly at all of us before pointing to me directly.

“You will pay for this!” She hissed as she stepped away. “You ruined him, you put those monstrosities inside him! You _stole him!_ ”

Liam’s hand gripped mine tighter on his waist, silently reassuring me that our babies were nowhere near monstrosities. They were our miracles and this woman’s words could never hurt them.

“ _Leave,_ Mrs. Geyer.” Ms. Martin repeated sternly. “Do not return.”

“You’re _disgusting! Both of you!”_

The school security team followed after her in a thick line of burly men, guarding us while she stormed to her car and tore out of the parking lot with loud revs and cries from her engine, furious indecipherable yells being spat out the window as she went.

Ms. Martin turned to us once she was out of sight, her eyes searching over us quickly with care.

“Are you all right?”

A deep exhale rushed from Liam’s lungs beside me and immediately I felt the drop in his posture. _Oh._

I turned as quickly as I could to catch him when his legs gave out from beneath him, his face pale and his lips bloodless while his eyes turned dull with exhaustion and shock.

“Li?” I called urgently, holding his weight up while he slumped and gripped onto my arms for support. “Li, it’s okay. It’s okay, it’s all over. _Breathe.”_

He tried his best to do so, Ms. Martin ducking down to the footpath where I lowered him to lean his back against the truck. My hands smoothed over his cheeks and brushed loose strands of his hair back, his heart racing shallowly inside his chest from the shock. I wasn’t sure if something was wrong with him or if he collapsed purely from the exhaustion and relief of finally getting that argument over with, but my instincts told me there was no real danger.  

“Liam?” Ms. Martin called, lowering a hand to his shoulder in an attempt to catch his attention. “Liam, you need to keep your eyes open.”

“She’s right, baby, look at me.” I pleaded with him softly, my thumbs a steady brush under his lashes. “Open your eyes.”

His fingers, lax and weak against my wrists, finally firmed up. He fought through the haze in his nervous system and opened his eyes to look into mine, his lips parting to let in deep sucks of air while he tried to stabilise himself. He held himself strong.

“Good,” I praised him, nodding and leaning closer to press my lips to his cheekbone in relief. “So proud of you, baby.”

“We need to get him inside.” Ms. Martin glanced around us, the majority of the students from the front doors having been herded to class by their teachers. “Do I need to call an ambulance?”

I shook my head, taking hold of him and lifting him into my arms as I stood. He wrapped himself around me and laid his head down on my shoulder, doing his best to breathe slow and deep.

“No, just get my keys?”

Ms. Martin did as I asked, taking the keys from the ignition inside the truck and grabbing up Liam’s backpack before shutting the door and locking it. She followed me up the entrance path with quick, impressive strides in her heels and held doors open for me until we reached the nurse’s office where I’d picked Liam up the day he threw up on the lacrosse field.

Thankfully, the grumpy, red-haired Russian nurse was nowhere to be seen this time. I laid my mate on the bed and dropped to my knees beside him, fingers brushing over his forehead while he turned onto his side to stare at me.

“Theo,” He exhaled, blinking a few times to keep his focus on my eyes. His lips twitched up tiredly and my Li started shining back through from amid the haze of his collapse. “ _Thank you.”_

I smiled softly, nodding while the love for him swelled familiarly in my chest. He was thanking me for defending him against his Mom, telling her the brutal truths he couldn’t bring himself to tell her. He knew he never needed to thank me because I would always be there when he needed me, but he was stubborn in the respect that he always thanked me anyway.

I put a hand to the babies inside him and made a few circles over them while they nudged and squirmed under the surface. They were in shock too, but I felt them start to settle under my palm. They could feel the affection pulsing between Liam and I; their nudges and twirls were more out of relief than distress.

“I’m always here to protect you, Li.” I promised him with the drop of a gentle kiss to the tip of his nose. “ _Always._ Are you okay?”

He stirred slightly on the mattress before a soft frown fell over his brow.

“Need you closer.” He whispered, shifting towards me. “My heart, it won’t slow down. Please.”

I understood him immediately, looking over my shoulder to a concerned Ms. Martin before standing and lowering myself onto the mattress behind him.

The principal shut the door and drew the blinds down while I pulled Li into my chest and spooned his body, my arms looping around him and holding him close to calm down the nerves inside him. I could feel every beat of his heart through his back against my chest, could feel every breath he heaved and every nudge the babies made against my hand while I held them under his t-shirt.

It wasn’t enough skin-to-skin as we needed, but it was all we could accomplish in the middle of a high school.

“Are you sure you don’t need an ambulance?” Ms. Martin asked softly, pulling up a chair and taking a seat by Liam’s head. “Are you in pain or distress? The children…”

“They’re fine,” He breathed, his eyes closing while my fingers swayed over his belly. He leaned back into me and let himself relax in the warmth from our bodies together. “Just a little overwhelmed. They’re strong, I promise.”

Natalie still worried at her lip, glancing down to the bulge of my hand under his shirt.

“Strong or not, if you keep getting stressed like this it can harm them. It can cause you pain, their heartrates will elevate and they will panic.”

Li nodded on the pillow softly, his breaths finally slowing the more he relaxed against me. The body contact was working.

“With all due respect, Miss, it’s not like I’ve been able to help it.”

Natalie and I smiled a little over his head at the whispered explanation, the both of us just relieved that he was coming back to us in his gentle stubborn ways. I dropped an adoring kiss to the back of his neck and nuzzled into his skin.

“That’s quite true.” She admitted with a nod. “How are you feeling? I think it would be best if you spent the day relaxing at home after an event like that.” 

He shook his head on the pillow, opening his eyes to find her.

“I can stay.” He insisted without room for argument. “I need to get the work done and I’m feeling a lot better. Please.”

“Li,” I tried to reason with him. “You just collapsed. Ms. Martin’s right, it’s best if you take it easy today. You’ll still have all those people staring and trying to make jabs at you, too.”

“I can take it easy _here_.” He huffed, more strength coming to his body as he rolled onto his back to look at me. “I’ll have my friends, I can just make sure not to walk too fast or-”

“Liam-”

“I want to _stay.”_ He argued with finality, his voice raising slightly. “Please.”

Natalie looked to me, her eyes a mixture of uncertainty and consideration. She stared at me for longer than usual, piquing my interest as to what she was thinking before she took a deep breath and nodded.

“I will allow you to stay.” She told Liam carefully, looking between us. “But only if you have Theo with you.”

My eyes shot up and I felt every nerve inside me zing with surprise and happiness. My mouth fell open and Liam stared at her in shock.

“Seriously?” I asked incredulously. “You’re going to let me stay with him?”

“That is the only way I will allow him to remain at school.” She decided with a nod. She made eye contact with Liam. “Your friends won’t be able to help you like Theo can if your condition slips. Especially with the students making comments at every turn – I’ve taken measures to start preventing that, but for today you will need all the support you can get.”

The breath left him and the happiness that tingled excitedly inside him matched that inside me. He turned his head to smile at me and I smiled back.

“Thank you, Miss.”

She nodded with a gentle smile and stood, smoothing down her blouse and joining her hands.

“You’re welcome. I need to get onto Sheriff Stilinski concerning your mother and stepfather, but you may depart for your first class whenever you feel ready. I’ll send in a handwritten letter of consent for Theo to present to your teachers, to prove that he is allowed to be with you today.”

I smiled gratefully at the woman, unable to help but think that Li and I had started to grow on her. She was giving us more leeway, albeit slowly. She was starting to trust me.

“Thank you.” I nodded from beside my mate. “Really.”

Ms. Martin nodded back before letting herself out of the nurse’s office, the door closing behind her with a gentle click.

Liam’s face was an explosion of excitement and gratitude on his back beside me, those blue eyes brightening at last. It lit his skin up and he no longer seemed so exhausted and in shock. He looked stronger. He looked like my Li again.

He put his arms up and I lowered my torso across his to hug him on the tiny, squishy mattress, burying my face into his throat and pressing tens of tender kisses to his mating bite. He smelled happier and so relieved, and even his heartbeat was back to normal. The babies were settled inside him and the drama of the morning could just wash over us and float away.

I was allowed to _stay_ with him, for the entire day. Nothing could’ve made us feel better.

I would be able to hold his hand in the hallways and sit close next to him in all his classes, press kisses to his cheeks and his shoulders and watch over his arm while he wrote in that cute damn left-handed scrawl. I’d get to sit with him and his friends at recess and _damn,_ I was going to be able to _protect him_ from all the nasty kids who wanted to prey on him.

It was everything I could have asked for, especially after the morning we’d had. Even if it was only for one day, I was grateful to Ms. Martin for allowing it.

“I’m so proud of you, Liam.” I murmured against the bite-mark on his throat before lifting my head and giving him a smile. “You’re so damn strong, baby.”

His hands followed me up to touch my face, his fingers smoothing under my lashes and following the curve of my lips.

“Because I had you.” He said softly. “I never would have been able to face her if you weren’t there with me. You have no idea how much your support means to me.”

I followed him down when his hands pulled at my cheeks, lowering my head until our noses collided.

“I know exactly how much it means.” I nodded. I was able to feel it in his blood, the gratitude he had for me and for _us._ Our bond let me experience just how much he loved me, and I was hardly surprised to find that I loved him just as deeply, just as much. “I love you.”

He nudged at my nose, asking for a kiss.   
“I love you, too.”

I granted it to him, letting our lips join in one hot, slow dance that relaxed his every muscle and sent our babies off to sleep in his belly under my palm. We laid there for at least another few minutes before there was a gentle knock to the door.

Cheryl stuck her head in and smiled, stepping inside and holding out a folded piece of paper for me to take. It was the letter of consent Ms. Martin had mentioned, and I tucked it into my pocket with a soft surge of pride through my chest.

“You ready to get up?” I asked Li softly, sitting up beside him and circling a palm over his belly. “What class do you have first up?”

He grunted with the effort of leaning over the edge of the bed, grabbing his backpack and sliding out his timetable. We both looked over the Wednesday schedule and spotted his first class: double Trigonometry.

“Mmph.” He moaned, pushing those lips out in a soft pout.

I grinned at him, leaning down and picking the timetable out of his fingers.

“No whining.” I uttered lowly, smoothing a thumb over the swell of his lower lip with a glance downwards. “You wanted to stay at school, so you do it with no complaints.”

The pout grew a little sadder under my thumb before I attacked it with my teeth, biting and sucking to draw a smile out of him. My hands tickled at his sides to coax out a laugh before I rolled off the tiny bed and held my hands out for him.

“C’mon. We’re classmates today.”

He lifted his brows at the sound of the term on my lips, taking my hands and standing to his feet with a soft breath of effort.

“Never thought I’d get to call you a classmate.”

He let a hand lower to hold the underside of his belly when the weight of the babies bore down, and I looked downwards to watch while he rubbed at the skin.

“They okay?” I asked, letting a hand join his. “Can you still feel the stretching?”

He nodded, caressing my fingers with his own before turning to pick up his schoolbag.

“Yeah, but I can handle it. I’ve got you here.”

I plucked the bag out of his hands and slung it over my own shoulder, smiling and holding out a hand for him to take as I led him out of the nurse’s office. Cheryl gave a short wave when we left in the direction of the main hallway, following the corridors to find Liam’s Trigonometry class.

Immediately, we noticed something different about the school.

Ms. Martin hadn’t been lying when she said she’d taken measures to prevent the bullying – she’d had cameras installed overnight. They looked like high-tech ones, which meant they undoubtedly included high resolution picturing and had audio, too.

Liam and I glanced to each other in surprise while we walked, spotting at least two cameras for every hallway.

“She wasn’t lying,” He stated in blank surprise. “She’s literally going to watch me as I move through the school and pick up on anyone who makes a move on me.”

I shrugged, a small smirk on my lips.   
“Just a little creepy, but it definitely makes me feel a lot better about leaving you here on your own. I think it was a bold decision.”

I knew the both of us were quietly thinking that _everything_ Natalie Martin did was a bold decision, but we didn’t need to say it aloud. She was a firm woman, a very hard-headed and independent leader for the school. At first I wasn’t so sure about her, but admittedly she was starting to grow on me. She was helping Li, and for that she earned a few kudos.

It really felt good, being able to walk through the school with him without dreading having to say goodbye. I slung an arm over his shoulders, satisfaction pooling warmly in my gut.

“Who do you have in Trig?” I asked into his hair, watching while several glass cabinets of pictures and trophies passed by on our trip. “Which of your friends?”

“Corey and Malia, although they like to sit near the front together.” He explained with a shrug as we found the hallway we needed. “Malia has trouble with math so Corey likes to help her out. Sitting at the front gives her better focus.”

We slowed in our gait when we approached the doorway to Liam’s Trig class, and upon spotting the room we noticed it was dark inside. Every student – including Malia and Corey in the front row – turned to gape and stare. The teacher was a middle aged woman, seated behind her desk while the students watched a film on the projector screen beside her. I assumed that was what teachers allowed their students to do during the last week of semester.

We stepped inside quietly with at least two dozen pairs of eyes on us, but not one person said a word. Corey and Malia waved from their seats and we waved back before the teacher approached us with caution.

“Liam, are you sure you’re okay to be here today? I saw…”

He nodded beside me, looking up to me before reaching into my pocket for Ms. Martin’s note.

“I’m fine, we spoke to Ms. Martin. Here,” He handed the note over. “Theo’s allowed to stay with me today.”

The teacher’s eyes scanned over the letter before she nodded and returned it, smiling up at the two of us before looking towards the rest of the class.

“Now I don’t want you to be distracted by the film, nor have to read in the dark…” She mused. “You can spend the period working inside the library if you’ll be more comfortable in there?”

I decided I liked this one. She was caring and non-discriminative, treated Liam just like any other student. I caught onto the hidden reason behind her suggestion for the library, too – in the library, we’d be on our own. There wouldn’t be a class full of students to stare and whisper about us and Li could stretch out between a few seats and do his schoolwork in peace – and maybe even with some cuddles from me, if the librarian wasn’t a strict old witch.

I nodded down to Li when he looked up at me, rubbing gentle little circles into his back while he smiled at his teacher and nodded.

“That’d be great.”

The woman smiled back.   
“I’ll write you a pass, just give me one moment.”

Li ducked down to have a short conversation with Corey and Malia while his teacher filled out a slip for him. I couldn’t help but smile a little when he struggled to crouch down, having to open his thighs just a little to fit the babies between. I knew he’d probably hit me if he saw, but my beta was just so goddamn _cute._

His friends asked if he was okay and what happened with his Mom, but I drowned out his response. It wasn’t something I wanted to dwell on – sure, I got to say to his mother what had been boiling inside me for the past few months, but it was starting to hurt me that it had to be his Mom who I’d pushed out of his life for him.

I never had the chance to make things right with my parents, knew that I _would_ if they were still alive. Liam’s were alive and he wanted to live without them. They were two of the most important people to have in his life, especially with two babies coming.

But then again, they brought it on themselves. They made the decision to abandon him, to hate him for who he was. They deserved what they got.

 

As it turned out, the librarian didn’t pose a problem. She was far too occupied with organising returns and shelf-stacking, trying to get everything done before winter break started.

She hardly noticed when Liam and I settled down at a table in the far corner by the bookshelves – didn’t notice _at all_ that Liam had his feet on her seats while he leaned back against me behind the desk. I could wrap my arms around him and nuzzle into his shoulder, press hundreds of little kisses to his throat and jaw while he rested with a sigh and worked through his Trig equations quietly.

It was perfect; there were no students in the library save for one or two in the middle sitting tests they’d missed. Even they seemed too enthralled in their exams for Li and I to be of any interest. I was acutely aware of the blinking red lights of several of Ms. Martin’s cameras on us, but let myself shrug it off. She knew the bond between us was something powerful and if we needed bodily contact, we were going to get it.

I found that I really enjoyed watching my mate study.

He worked quickly, learnt everything he needed to learn without any issues at all. He never paused in confusion or sighed over a question on the worksheet. He just… _did it._ He was smart, really switched on, and I wanted to kick myself for being surprised. I’d always known he was an intelligent kid and I’d watched him do his homework plenty of times, but now he was working on stuff he’d never seen before.

I knew if it was me, I would have needed a teacher at least three times already. But Li didn’t.

And it only made me infinitely more attracted to him, and just as proud. I showed it to him in more kisses and gentle bites to his skin, tickles to the babies inside him and low murmurs of, _I love you_ s. He accepted them with soft smiles and tips of his head back upon my shoulder so I could reach his lips.

Getting to spend the day with him was amazing. It felt like I was getting to see inside a part of his life that I never usually had access to. I saw what he saw when he walked through the halls, felt every pair of eyes that stared. I watched every loop of his handwriting, watched the stunning blue of his eyes skim over his work, listened to every breath he took and every beat of his heart. I got to listen to the conversations he and his friends had at the lunch table, got to hear their laughs and see their smiles. Even that Nolan kid wasn’t so gloomy with all of them around.

It was a little world that I could’ve had for myself too, if I’d turned out different growing up. If I hadn’t turned into a sociopath, hadn’t been the most evil child in California. It almost made me think twice about my decision not to graduate, but I realised quickly that it wasn’t _me._ The whole school scene wasn’t _my_ scene, it was Liam’s. It was he who made it look so inviting.

The poor thing got tired towards the last two periods of his day. I could see the darkness hollowing out in bags under his eyes and I could literally feel the way his body screamed for a nap. His back grew a little sore the more we had to move around to each class and he’d adopted an adorable kind of waddle, a shift of his weight in such a way that it relieved the pressure on his spine. I didn’t dare laugh at him about it for fear of my nuts being punched, but I kept an arm around his lower back to help support and ease it while the barely-there smile played at my lips. He was so damn beautiful.

The last classes of his day had to be those he hated the most: Health class and Biology.

Biology was tense, but I sat with him at the back of the room and created a little bubble for us to exist in where the kids’ stares and whispers couldn’t get to him. I kept him close and worked on the last of his Biology catch-up with him, Biology being the one subject I’d been good at in school.

Mr. Lewis seemed to have forgiven me for my outburst yesterday, and he kept a regular, caring watch on us while he briefly introduced next semester’s study topic to his students for their last class before break. When the bell rang for last period, he walked Li through the assigned report before letting us leave for Health class. The experimental report sounded like a regular task. It sounded straight-forward and easy; the experiment it was based on had been uploaded onto the school intranet portal and all Li needed to do was analyse it.

Health class was uncomfortable, to say the least.

One, because it was a room filled with horny teenage males. Two, because the study topic was always sex. Three, because Corey and Mason would _not stop kissing._

Liam had warned me about them before but I never imagined that they literally spent the entire period making out and jerking each other off under the table. I didn’t know how the other kids couldn’t _smell it,_ the thick sex pheromones that oozed from their skin the longer they went. It suffocated Liam and I – how could the humans not even catch a scent?

I dragged my mate to the back of the classroom once more and sat down with him in the most deserted corner. Some of the young males stared and sneered in disgust when I led him past them, but one glare from me and they knew not to say a word unless they wanted their teeth pried out one by one with a pair of pliers.  

Liam sat down into the seat with a deep sigh, his brow furrowing in discomfort when he slouched to reach behind him and knead his back. I let a hand join in, trying to massage the pain away for him while he huffed and looked to me helplessly.

“This is just going to get worse, isn’t it?” He mumbled, and I nodded apologetically.

He leaned into the hand I held to the side of his head and I brought him sideways in his seat to lean into my chest for a hug.

“Not long now. Last period and we can go home.”

He nodded against my collarbones and let a soft breath out that I knew was meant for me – to tell me that my comfort was helping. I circled my palm over his lower back firmly, dropping a kiss to his hair while the teacher began the lesson at the front of the class.

Li tried to focus on the reading he’d been given as catch-up, but even I found it a little difficult to ignore Mr. Smith’s voice when he introduced the next topic to the room of boys around us.

“Next semester, we will be covering the topics of _safe sex!_ ” He announced, almost a little too enthusiastically.

I physically cringed, a scowl of discomfort falling over my face.

_This class, honestly._

It was one of the main reasons I decided _not_ to enrol for my last semester of high school. This was ridiculous, pure bullshit. There was no way the filthy-minded males in the room were going to heed all this advice and information, no matter how enthusiastically Mr. Smith delivered it to them.

I felt bad that Li had to endure it for another few months yet.

“Yes, we’ll be looking at protection against diseases, infections and – of course – pregnancy.”

I realised the problem in the room before Mr. Smith did, my hand stilling against Liam’s back while I waited for the comment to come. The room went quiet before low laughter broke out, and one guy in the middle of the room had to voice his asshole opinion.

“I don’t think Mumbar knows this stuff, sir.” His voice was low and self-absorbed, and immediately I wanted to hunt him down in his seat and tear his tongue from his throat. “He hasn’t been practicing very safe sex – not very _natural_ sex, either.”

I felt the hurt spread through my mate’s bloodstream at the student’s vile words, but he didn’t make a single noise or movement to show it. My fingers took hold of the back of his jacket and I squeezed at the material to keep myself grounded from the anger.

Liam’s hand closed over my free wrist and those blue eyes looked up at me, the beauty in his face begging me not to do anything.

“Please.” He whispered, but I shook my head in conflict.

Mr. Smith got to work immediately at scolding the kid who made the comment.

“Neil, if you’re going to make disgusting comments like that, I’ll need to see you every day after school for detention until graduation. Am I clear?”

The student slouched in his chair, signifying his location to me immediately. The asshole muttered an irked response before I moved to stand from my chair, but the hand around my wrist squeezed impossibly tight as Liam yanked me back down. He did it with much more force than I thought he had the energy to use, surprising me slightly before his eyes glared at me warningly.

“Theo.” He muttered while Mr. Smith continued the lesson from the front of the room. “Don’t.”

“They can’t get _away_ with this shit, Li, that’s why I’m here. To protect you.”

“You just got Ms. Martin to start trusting you.” He reminded me lowly. “Don’t fuck that up. Mr. Smith handled it and I’m certain the camera picked everything up. He’ll pay in other ways. Just… please. Stay with me.”

He knew how to stroke at my affection for him, knew the exact right words to use to make my heart flutter and my wolf nuzzle protectively at his own from inside our chests. _Stay with me._

I let out a deep breath and settled back in the chair, nodding in surrender while my mate lifted my hand to press a kiss to my knuckles appreciatively.

The anger still bubbled in my chest but I suppressed it with even, deep breaths. Breaths of Liam’s scent, of the smell of the babies inside him. I had to settle down, for them.

So I let it slide for the first time ever. A student had insulted Liam and I did nothing - nothing but sit and glower at the back of the asshole’s head for the entirety of the ninety minutes until home bell finally rang out from the hallway.

The babies didn’t even flinch inside Liam at the noise anymore, having grown used to it quickly over the past few days. I helped him to his feet and shouldered his bag myself, slipping my fingers into his and leading him out of the classroom.

“Neil Baker.”

We slowed to watch while the kid from class was stopped not ten feet down the hallway. He paused in his footsteps and his friends stood to stare while Ms. Martin folded her arms down at him.

“Miss?” He tried to smile, but it failed him.

I felt satisfaction rising in my chest while the principal stared him down.

“I’ll need you to come with me.”

The blue flash of Ms. Martin’s eyes sparkled over Neil’s head, shining at us for a split second before she led him off towards her office. Liam smirked up at me softly, lifting his brows in evidence.

“See? Told you.”

I sighed in defeat, looping an arm around his waist and nodding with an identical little smirk as we continued on our way.

“Okay. You were right.”

“Liam! Theo!”

We turned when Mason and Corey came jogging to catch up to us, their lips swollen and chapped from god-knows-what they had gotten up to in Health. I almost wanted to run away to escape the scent I knew would be following them, but decided against it. Li wouldn’t have been able to keep up anyhow.

“Hey.” Mason smiled as he and his boyfriend joined us on our trip back towards the front of the school. “What’d we miss?”

I shrugged.   
“Ms. Martin cornering that kid from Health class.”

The boyfriends exchanged confused expressions as we walked.

“What kid?”

Liam scoffed at their oblivion, shaking his head in amusement.

“Seriously. You guys pay no attention at all, do you?” He didn’t wait for a response, leaning into my side and letting out a short breath when his spine ached. “Can’t wait for this week to be over. This is harder than I thought.”

His friends’ eyes roamed down over the babies freely. Corey tilted his head thoughtfully.

“They look bigger today.”

Li nodded with a grimace.   
“They _feel_ bigger. They’ve been growing all day.”

Mason’s eyes were concerned as they drifted over the two of us from our left.

“You don’t think they’ve skipped another week, do you?”

We finally reached the main hallway, the four of us stopping at the lockers so book exchanges could be made. Liam stuffed his Trigonometry textbook into the bag on my shoulder to take home.

“I don’t think so.” He answered his best friend with an unsure shrug. “At least I hope not. I know they’re supposed to be growing heaps now but I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep doing all this walking around if they’re going to snap my spine like this. It’s crazy.”

“Bet that’s something your Mom never warned you about! _Oh._ ”

I turned to glare at Mason for his stupid outburst, but he was already remorseful.

“Sorry, Li…” He apologised slowly before hesitating. “How are you about it anyway? Are you okay?”

My mate didn’t even flinch at the question when we walked through the front doors and into the freezing cold whipping wind.

“I’m fine.” He nodded honestly, glancing to Mason with truthful eyes. “I feel good. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”

“Are you sure though? It’s normal to feel upset about this kind of thing. I mean, she’s your _Mom.”_

We approached the truck and slowed to a stop, and I let Liam’s waist go to unlock the doors and put his backpack on the floor inside.

“Honestly guys, I’m fine. They left me, never wanted to see me again. I finally got to tell Janine how much I hate her and I disowned her as my mother just like she and James disowned me as their son. I’m not upset. I’m relieved.”

I listened with my head inside the truck while I leaned across to start the engine. It had been something I was slightly worried about too, that the regret would wash over him after a few hours had passed and the adrenaline had left his body. But he really was telling the truth. He was _fine,_ and he was happy.

His friends seemed to accept it, giving him proud smiles and changing the subject quickly.

“So I’m really excited to give you your Christmas present this year,” Mason blurted when I returned to wrap my arms around my mate from behind.

I felt Liam frowning.   
“ _What?_ We never get each other Christmas presents. Why’d you get me something?”

Mason shared an excited grin with his boyfriend before knowing he’d already said too much, readjusting the strap of his bag on his shoulder and backing away with Corey slowly.

“You’ll see! We’ll bring them on Friday!”

“ _Them?”_ Li repeated, calling after them with confused irritation while they left down the footpath to find Mason’s car. “You’re bastards!”

They waved over their shoulders at him and I laughed into his throat, cuddling into him and walking him backwards to the open passenger door of the truck.

“Come on, let them spoil you for one year. They’re clearly so excited about it.”

He held onto my hands while he climbed up into the seat with a huff.

“Just don’t want them spending money on me.”

I joined him in the truck, squeezing a hand over his thigh affectionately before pulling out of the space and heading for home.

“Just don’t think about the guilt, then. Think about the amazing massage I’m going to give you when we get home.”

I felt his body light up beside me, the little ache in his back begging me _yes please_ through the emotion in the air. He looked towards me hopefully.

“Serious?”

I nodded with a laugh.   
“Of course. A nice hot bath, some of that lavender oil you like…”

He stared at me, his mouth almost hanging open before he glared suspiciously.

“How did you know I liked lavender?”

I shrugged, trying to keep the smug smile off my lips for once.

“When you were kidnapped, Mason talked about you. He told me stuff, just to keep me calm from the panic. He said you used to fall asleep to lavender when you were little.”

The love and surprise filled the air around us and I didn’t even have to look to know that Li was glowing. I felt the smile on his lips and he leaned into my shoulder, pressing a kiss to the material of my jacket.

“You remembered that?”

I nodded while I drove, a nostalgic smile over my lips.

“I remember every little detail. But only if it’s about you.”

I expected the smack that slapped over my thigh, accepting it with a laugh.

“You’re so fucking sappy.” My mate cried, but the tone in his voice was nowhere near negative. “I’ve turned you too soft, Raeken.”

I agreed with him with a grin and a stroke to his thigh beside mine. The idea couldn’t have made me happier.

“You have.”

 

***

 

Liam’s POV  
  


Theo’s massages felt _fantastic._

It was like a hidden talent, unless it was just the fact that his hands knew exactly where to glide upon my skin. He knew my body back to front and our bond let him feel exactly where I ached the most.

He pressed and smoothed and circled over just the right places, his fingers and palms like heaven on my skin under the bathwater. The babies were settled inside me and the stretching feeling had finally stopped, so I sat there between my mate’s legs and almost drifted off to sleep in relaxation with the scent of the lavender filling my lungs.

It was perfect, and we stayed in there until the water turned cold and our skin went just a little too wrinkly. I’d accepted Theo’s help with lifting me to my feet from the tub without any complaint, finally getting used to the fact that I _needed_ the help. The stubbornness was diminishing and I found myself trusting him with taking care of me and aiding me when I needed it, because it was clear to me that the bigger my belly swelled, the more I was going to need him. I wasn’t going to be able to escape it and it definitely wasn’t going to get any easier to move around.

And Theo promised me he would be there to support me. So I was going to let him.

I even let him dress me without one complaint, merely smiling down at him while he helped me step into a pair of pyjama pants. We stood in front of his mirror before I put a shirt on, just looking and feeling while we observed my belly. It definitely felt bigger than it had at the start of the week, but not a whole _lot_ bigger. It wasn’t like the morning when Theo had woken me up to show me the extra two and a half inches that had been added to my waistline. This was subtle. Just a little higher above my belly button and slightly firmer and fuller from below. The babies had listened to Theo; they weren’t rushing to get bigger any longer. They were taking it easy on me.

And I spotted my first stretch marks.

There were only a few and they were very feint, only visible because of the redness from our bath. But they were there. Tiny little squiggly risen lines low on my belly, just above my hipbones. And a few more on the underside, right where the curve began above my pubic bone. More tiny squiggly lines.

I stared at them sadly, fingering over the skin softly while Theo hugged around me and tried to cheer me up. He told me that they were normal, all a part of the changes as my body stretched and expanded around our babies. He told me that I was still beautiful and that my skin would heal from them in a few hours anyway, and I believed him. I did. But what had dawned on me was the fact that I was big enough to _have_ stretch marks. The babies were almost halfway grown and it was all going to happen so fast from there on.

From what I read, everything was going to start going downhill. My aches and pains would only get worse, the stretch marks would increase, I’d get so much more goddamn tired and my brain would turn to a forgetful mush. I wouldn’t be able to walk properly and I’d need a body pillow just to lay on my side comfortably. By the end of this, I wouldn’t even be able to sit on the toilet properly, let alone get off it without Theo pulling me up.

This was literally going to ruin my body and make me so uncomfortable, but somehow I didn’t dread it. I didn’t ask myself why the hell I decided to go along with this, why Theo and I didn’t consider maybe not having the babies because we were young and male bodies just don’t _do this._

I told myself it was all going to be so worth it when we got to meet the two tiny lives we’d created. We’d get to see them take their first breaths and hear their voices. We’d get to feel their skin and see the colour of their eyes, hold them in our arms and watch them grow and learn. They were going to be _ours_ , they were going to be so beautiful and every little part of me was waiting for it.

It was the biggest damn step I’d ever taken, coming to terms with a feeling like that.

I started this with fear, with hate and worry and trauma. I’d been so afraid of this and I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to make it through without a mental breakdown. And now I was looking down over the stretch marks on my skin, with Theo wrapped around me from behind while we stood in front of his mirror – and I was _excited._ I was content and happy and so excited that this was happening.

We were doing this. We were becoming a family, having two babies together.

So I told him.

I told Theo exactly what I felt and everything I thought. To see the expression on his face, the smile over his lips and the gentle rise of his brows while his eyes burst with pride made me feel like for once in my life, I was doing exactly what I was built to do. And that was to be _happy,_ to be so damn in love with this guy and to see the smile on his face. I was with exactly who I was meant to be with, in the life I was meant to live, inside the house he and I were meant to share together – and I know he felt it too.

He turned me around and took my cheeks in his hands while the most beautiful smile spread across his face. A smile that no one had ever seen but me.

“I’m so fucking proud of you, you know that?” He grinned, pulling me close and cherishing my skin under his fingertips. “So fucking proud. You’re incredible.”

I let myself relish in it, in having someone be so endlessly proud of me. It was something I’d never had before Theo.

“I’m proud of you, too.” I touched the dimples in his cheeks. “I’m not the only one who’s come a long way. Can you imagine if this happened one year ago?”

The big _god no_ that shone in his face made me laugh, made me so grateful for who we’d become and what we had together. I felt over the bridge of his nose and the dip of his brow, touching and feeling the face I’d grown so fond of. The body I’d made my home.

“I’m proud of you, Theo Karl Raeken.” I smiled up at him cheesily. “And I love you so, so much.”

He shook his head at me, not even needing words to tell me how sappy I was before ducking down to fasten his arms right around my butt to lift me up. It was almost too much effort to lift my thighs high enough to wrap around his waist, but I found it to be a relief when I managed. The babies sat comfortably against him, not at all fussed that I was slightly squishing them on either side.

My mate held my weight and kissed me, supporting me both literally and figuratively before he turned to his bed, lowered us down and made love to me.

Feeling so full with him, having him so close inside me was a feeling I’d never grow bored of. It would never stop feeling this incredible, the hot stretch of my rim around his perfect thickness or the tingles he sent down my spine when he nudged low and so deep inside me that it felt as though he were sparking pleasure inside my stomach itself.

He created a central inside me, right in the middle of my being where nothing but love, pleasure, happiness and comfort presided. With him so close, I felt home. I felt safe and untouchable, felt like nothing in the world could ever hurt us again because we were together.

We became the _whole_ that our mating bond made possible. We became one.

Even after we came, we stayed together like always. Theo’s body refused to leave mine, refused to let us become two separate people again because this was how we belonged. We basked in the afterglow of the sex, tangled up and cosy and still leaking. And it was perfect.

The babies rested happily between us, our boy making sporadic little nudges against Theo’s navel while we rested and smiled. He reached down to stroke gently over the right side of my belly that was available to reach, looking down over the stretch of skin before returning his attention back to me.

He snuggled close and peppered my face with kisses, the warmth of his skin drawing me closer against him to accept all the affection.

“That’s it,” He murmured against my cheek when I shuffled closer. “Surrender to the kisses.”

I rolled my eyes and pushed at his shoulders, fighting against the kisses on my cheek before dislodging him enough for my lips to find his instead. A pleased moan was hummed into my mouth and the arms around my body pulled me in a little tighter while the hips connected to mine made a sudden thrust upwards, making me suck in a breath at the sore pleasure it awakened in my belly.

I bit at Theo’s lip in warning and earned a smile, receiving a few more gentle kisses before our heads fell to the pillow with a sigh and our fingers started to sway upon the other’s skin. Baby A made another poke at his father’s belly before one of us opened our mouths to talk.

“What was your childhood like?”

My eyes opened sleepily at the question, finding Theo’s half-open and waiting a few inches away.

“Mine?” I repeated softly, earning a nod. I frowned a tad while I thought. “It was… quite regular, I guess. I remember getting in trouble a lot; I was always up to no good. I was pretty lonely too, being the only child and all.”

“What about relatives or neighbours? There weren’t any kids you could spend time with?”

I shook my head.   
“Not really. Relatives never usually visited unless it was Christmas or someone’s birthday, and Mom never let me visit the neighbours. Just always said no.”

Theo stayed quiet, his fingers circling and drawing patterns on my back while I stared into his sleepy face.

“What about yours?” I whispered. “Was _any_ of it good?”

The slightest of smiles lifted on his lips. His eyes were almost closed but I could see the nostalgia in them while he relived some of his memories.

“I remember one birthday.” He nodded. “The sight of my mother’s face when she tucked me into bed. I think I was only maybe four. But I just remember having a stomach full of cake and I laid there watching her smiling down at me, singing something. I remember feeling so happy, so safe and warm. I think it was one of the only times I ever showed her that I loved her.”

I slid a hand up from his back to tangle in his hair and stroke through it, letting the strands trail between my fingers before reaching back to do it again.

“I’m sure she knew, Theo.” I murmured softly, admiring the gorgeous man in my arms. “She was your mother. They just know things.”

His eyes opened a little more, the green having hidden behind more brown as his mood saddened slightly.

“I just wish I could’ve turned out different.” He explained soberly. “I ruined the family, I killed them. I’m the reason they’re all dead. They were such beautiful people and they’re dead, Li. They’ll never get to meet you or the babies, they’ll never get to see us grow together. It’s all because of me.”

I tugged on his hair a little firmer, forcing him to look at me.

“Theo.” I shook my head. “They’re not dead because of you. They’re dead because of the Dread Doctors.”

“They’re dead because of my choices, Li.” He argued hoarsely, all signs of sleep having left him. His eyes shone with regret. “You don’t have to try to console me; I’ve accepted it, come to terms with it. It was me who killed them and I was a complete monster. I’m not grieving and I’m not hurting because of it, I’m just… really sorry for it. I wanted you to be able to hear that.”

I wanted to ask _why me,_ but the answer came as soon as I thought it. It was such a stupid question. 

I was all he had. I was his everything, the only person in the world he loved and trusted. He wanted to tell me how he felt about what happened to his parents because it was his way of opening up to me, telling me about his life and the past and what he thought and felt inside.

I smiled softly, nudging closer on the pillow to join our lips softly, lazily. He was the most precious human I’d ever met.

“I hear you, loud and clear.” I whispered against his lips.

He smiled into our kiss before taking better hold of me and rolling us over.

I ended up on my back below him, legs hiked up around his middle while he let the weight of his hips fall into me. It sent more tingles coursing through my veins and a short moan came up my throat when he rolled those hips slowly, deliciously. I felt every throb of his heartbeat inside me, every vein on his shaft as it stroked my prostate at a suffocatingly slow rate. The pressure was controlled, just enough to get a rise from my heartbeat but not enough to work me up.

He knew how to find our medium, our in-between. He ducked down to kiss me once more before resting on his elbows above me and nosing at my cheek.

“It’s actually nearly Christmas.” He murmured against my skin casually. “Never realised it’s only five days away.”

I lifted my brows in surprise, because I never noticed either. _Five_ days?

“Is it weird that we haven’t even thought about it?” I asked, earning a confident shake of Theo’s head.

“We’ve been a little distracted.” He reasoned, stroking through my hair and fanning it all out on the pillow beneath me. “Are you big on Christmas? Is it a thing for you?”

I shrugged.   
“Not really. My parents didn’t even really do a whole lot for it. Was your family into it?”

He tilted his head indecisively.

“They tried to be.” He hummed thoughtfully. “They tried to make a big deal out of it but I just never clicked to it. The attention made me angry, I was like a Grinch.”

I smiled softly before poking him square in the chest.

“The Theo who stole Christmas.” I laughed, earning a playful eye roll from my lover. “Or, the _Chimera_ who stole Christmas. Could be a thing.”

He ducked down to attack me with kisses, smacking them across my face in frantic smooshes before he gathered me up in his arms and rolled us back onto our sides. I tried to catch my breath from the laughter that had escaped my chest from the not-so-vicious attack.

Theo smiled over my happiness and pressed another kiss to my nose, settling.

“Should we get a tree?”

I wrinkled my nose, shaking my head after a few moments.

“Not this year.” I decided. “We’re way too distracted. And knowing us it’ll be March before we actually get around to taking it down again.”  

He nodded to agree happily with a soft laugh, inching his head closer on the pillow and pecking my nose with another kiss.

“Next year, then?”

I nodded too, returning the kiss to the tip of his nose with a smile.

“Next year.”

  
***

  
Theo and I got a surprise when we walked into school the next morning.

It wasn’t in our surroundings or the people we saw, and it wasn’t even the fact that it was a lot colder outside than it had been all week. Theo led me in as usual, the both of us expecting it to be a normal day where we met up with my friends, collected my books for the first few periods and moved off to find the first classroom for the day.

All of that happened, only for us to be met in the hallway by Ms. Martin.

We all stopped short and my friends looked to me curiously before the principal smiled.

“How are you feeling this morning?” She asked me kindly, blue eyes fresh in the early morning.

I nodded slowly, glancing up to Theo hesitantly while his arm wound around my back and drew me in close. I knew he felt the same as I did; both of us anticipated something bad. His protectiveness flared around me so thickly that I was sure even Mason and Ms. Martin were able to smell it on him, but my principal put her hands up placidly to ease us.

“There’s nothing wrong, no need to panic.” She held out a folded piece of paper. “I’m just here to give you this.”

We looked at the paper and just stared at it for a moment, surprise and confusion spreading through us before Theo finally reached out to take it, flipping it open and gaping when he read the contents.

My brows lifted and my heart soared in my chest when I recognised it as another letter of consent, but this one outlined that Theo was to attend my classes with me until winter break.

My mate gaped at the paper, looking up to Ms. Martin in surprise. I could feel him trying to find something to say, trying to formulate a sentence to say thank you and ask why. But he remained speechless for long enough that Natalie understood.

“Yesterday was the smoothest day Liam has had since he came back on Monday.” She explained with an approving, grateful gaze between the five of us. “No one dared to attack him and only one single student made a hurtful comment. I think it would take a huge load of pressure off if you were allowed to stay together.”

“But… what about the law?” I asked, unable to prevent myself from sounding like a dumbstruck child.

Ms. Martin tilted her head compassionately, looking between Theo and I.

“I’ve spent a lot of time thinking on it, and I’ve concluded that the law concerns regular human teenagers with no supernatural traits. You and Theo clearly have a mating bond so unique that I’m unable to fully comprehend its strength. At first I couldn’t understand how it could have such an impact on you as individual people, but I’ve seen the difference it makes to separate you, and I’ve seen how well you shine when you’re allowed to stay together. I’m no longer willing to risk either of your wellbeing or mentality, or the health of your babies by keeping you apart during a time like this. I think it’s in your best interest that Theo is allowed to remain by your side.”

“The authorities won’t see it that way,” Theo argued warningly. “If they find out, you could lose your job couldn’t you?”

“If they find out, they’ll have a very tough fight on their hands.” She lifted a brow stubbornly, almost making me smile. “But as long as they have no reason to visit the school, they shouldn’t find out.”

My mate looked to me, his eyes alight with gentle happiness before he looked back to Ms. Martin and nodded.

“Thank you.”

She accepted his thanks with a smile and stepped back.

“I’m trusting you, Theo. Don’t disappoint me.”

The flare of responsibility lit up inside him like an extra warmth. I felt it against my body as he nodded gratefully to my principal before we moved past her to continue on to class. When we rounded the corner, my friends turned with excited eyes and open mouths. Mason lifted both hands to high five us enthusiastically, the squeak of his sneakers on the floors echoing as he danced in triumph before us.

“ _Yesssss!”_ He hissed, chasing away Corey and Malia with his god-awful moves. “How fucking cool is _that?!_ You’re allowed to stay with Liam!”

Theo couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face, both in happiness for the privilege he was just given and in ridicule at Mason’s terrible dancing. His hand squeezed at my waist in silent celebration before he tipped his chin at my best friend.

“Come on, move your ass before I kick it. You’re going to blind us.”

We left him behind to pursue Corey and Malia up the hallway, happiness spreading through our bodies at the event that just occurred.

Theo was allowed to come to school with me, officially. Every single damn day.

I’d never have to say goodbye to him in the mornings and I wouldn’t have to see the sad shine in his eyes when he watched me disappear into a classroom. It was like life was slowly getting better for us, picking up after the awful shit we’d been through.

And Ms. Martin had been right about it benefiting us throughout the day.

Without the trauma to start my day like yesterday, I had more energy. I focused better on my work in class and just having Theo beside me every minute of every hour did both our bond and our bodies wonders. I felt happy, content despite the fact that I was at school. My back didn’t hurt anywhere near as much as it had yesterday and my mood was brighter. So was Theo’s. He smiled a whole lot more throughout the day and even let himself laugh a little with my friends at the lunch table.

The babies didn’t ache once inside me all day, the both of them pleased that Theo was with us constantly like they were used to. I ended up completing my Trig catch-up and agreed to sit my exam during the second lunch break instead of waiting to do it after the winter holidays.

Sure Theo didn’t enjoy having to sit at the other end of the library while I sat the test, but at least he had my friends to keep him company. It was one more thing I could cross off my list: _~~Trigonometry Exam.~~_ ~~~~

Doing that exam early made me adamant to take my Physics one tomorrow before the school closed for winter break, so I spent my free time that afternoon at home getting stuck into the remainder of my catch-up on Theo’s bed. I was cosy, curled up in my blanket from the lounge room with a hot chocolate and the dozing form of my favourite Chimera, snuggled against my back and breathing evenly as he slept.

It was the perfect evening while it rained outside, my feet tangled with Theo’s to keep warm as I worked through the last chapter about Electric and Magnetic Phenomena. I was so relaxed that I didn’t even flinch when the front door opened and shut from down the hallway.

The person could be heard toeing off their wet shoes at the mat before they made their way through the house, following mine and Theo’s heartbeats to find us.

I knew who it was just by the pattern of their footsteps on the floorboards, looking up to greet my alpha with a silent smile when he appeared in the doorway.

Scott looked a little tired and consumed, but the way his eyes lit up upon spotting me on the bed with a sleeping Theo snuggled into the back of my neck convinced me that he wasn’t as stressed as he looked. He made his way into the room quietly, sitting on the edge of the bed and holding his arms out for me.

“Hey.” He greeted softly into my shoulder when I leaned up to hug him. “How are you feeling? You been all right?”

I nodded, unable to keep the smile off my face when we broke apart. I’d missed my alpha.

“Yeah, really good. Everything’s been great.”

The way he smiled in relief made the room feel ten times warmer.

“You’re feeling okay?” He confirmed with a pleased nod, looking down to the widespread collection of papers and notes upon the bed before me. “Have the kids at school settled down since finding out? I wanted to beat them all myself when you texted me.”

I laid down against the mattress beside Theo and let my back enjoy the flatness after being propped up on my elbows for so long, nodding to Scott’s questions with a short yawn.

“Ms. Martin’s cracking down on them all, installed goddamn _cameras_ to catch the ones who make a move. She spoke to us today; she’s going to let Theo come to school with me.”

“Serious?” Scott’s brows lifted, and the warm brown of his eyes directed over my shoulder to Theo. “She must really be starting to care if she’s going to those kinds of lengths. You’re lucky.”

There was a deep inhale of breath from beside me and Theo’s eyes opened to the sound of Scott’s voice. He jolted for a second before realising that the room was safe, a sigh leaving his chest before he shifted to lay his head on my chest lazily.

“Hi.” He muttered to Scott with a brief wave.

“Hey, sorry for waking you. Liam was just telling me that Ms. Martin is letting you go to school, that’s awesome.”

“Definitely didn’t expect it.” He hummed against my chest, wrapping an arm around the babies and closing his eyes. “What about you? What’s up?”

Scott’s eyes shifted down towards the blanket we were curled up under and I noticed immediately that that was why he was here. Something was bothering him and he needed people to hang out with.

He took a while to talk, seeming to fight with the thoughts in his head before convincing himself it was better to talk about it than to lie. So he heaved a sigh and scooted around on the bed, laying down parallel to us with his head near our feet.

“I haven’t talked to Stiles in a whole week.” He admitted, lacing his fingers over his stomach. “He’s been trying to text and call and he’s turned up at the front door but I just… I feel so afraid of him, I can’t face him. I told Mom and she said the same thing you guys did, that I just need time. But I didn’t think I’d need a whole _week._ ”

Theo and I listened patiently while he let it all out.

“I mean, what is there to even _think about?”_ He continued exasperatedly. “I’m _happy_ for them, it’s Stiles and Derek… I mean sure I never would have picked it and it’s a little weird but if I’m happy for them, why is this so hard? Why do I feel so…”

The room was quiet while he tried to find the right word. Theo ended up surprising me by finding it for him.

“Dejected?”

Scott nodded on the mattress by our feet.   
“ _Yes._ Dejected. Why do I feel so dejected?”

Theo surprised me again by answering Scott’s question openly, suggestively.

“Maybe it’s because you just really weren’t expecting it. It shocked you and Stiles said nothing about it. For all we know, they could’ve been sleeping together all the way back at Aunt Frieda’s. Not to mention you literally had to walk in on them having sex. For someone who’s never seen two guys at it before, it’s scary. For someone who’s never seen it, to see their _best friend_ since childhood bent in half by the guy who taught you how to be a werewolf? That’s mentally scarring.”

“Too harsh.” I murmured to him with a nudge, watching the way Scott’s fingers clenched each other upon his stomach. “Not everyone can handle your honest descriptions.”

“No, he’s right…” My alpha intervened softly, his eyes watching out the window while it rained and the sky darkened slowly. “I’m kind of traumatised. That’s what it is.”

My mate lifted his head to smirk triumphantly up at me, a brow quirking to silently say, _told you I was right._ I put a palm to his stupid smug face and pushed it back down.

Scott looked to us for guidance, his brows lifted. His phone was audible vibrating in his pocket against the mattress but he ignored it expertly.

“How do you get over trauma? Like, proper trauma? Is there something you can do?”

I shrugged, unsure how I actually managed to keep the dreams and negative thoughts away. The only reason I hadn’t let myself go was…

“Theo.”

Scott seemed confused before I realised I had to elaborate, so I opened my mouth quickly before he got the wrong idea.

“I got through it because I had Theo.” I explained. “He was right by my side and he helped me train my mind not to circle back to the things that terrified me.”

His phone started vibrating in his pocket with a new call.

“So I just need to train my brain to feel happy about Stiles and Derek rather than feel sick and shocked.”

“Basically.” Theo murmured. “It’ll be easier if you talk about it though, and not just to us. You have to tell Stiles how you feel. Face the situation that’s bothering you.”

There was a short laugh from the alpha at our feet and I lifted my head to check he was still sane.

“Sorry, it’s just funny how I was the one telling you to open up only a month ago and now you’re the one telling _me_." He let out a chuckle. " _You_ of all people.”

I felt Theo roll his eyes behind his eyelids over my chest.

“Yes, the murderous Chimera has learnt how to feel. Now take his advice and answer that damn phone before I do.”

There was a grunt of reluctance from Scott before he lifted his hip to wrestle the back pocket of his jeans for his phone. He’d only just fished it out when the vibrating stopped, giving way for a single vibration to indicate the missed call.

“Well…” He said, trailing off in badly-hidden relief.

“You stalled deliberately.” Theo deadpanned. “Took your time getting it out of your pocket just so you didn’t-”

“Oh, _please_ ,” I groaned at the Chimera wrapped around me. “It’s actually hard to get an iPhone six plus out of a pair of skinny jeans. I mean, have you seen how tight Scott’s jeans fit him?”

 _“What?_ My jeans aren’t _that_ tight!”

Scott’s exclamation of shock and betrayal was drowned out by the laughter of my mate, straight from his stomach as I unintentionally insulted my alpha on the tightness of his pants. I put a palm to my face while Scott tried to argue over Theo’s laughs, wishing I’d sink into the mattress and hide until the embarrassment had passed.

All of us were distracted, however, when a distant banging noise reached our ears. All three of us paused and went silent to listen as it grew wilder and more frantic, and Theo and I sat up to glance at Scott warily when we realised it was coming from the front door.

My mate wrapped an arm around me and held me close, protectiveness veiling around me in a thick cloud of pheromones while Scott’s body went stiff in anticipation of danger. All our heartbeats bumped up a few notches and we listened and waited until a voice started to call out with the banging.

“ _Scott! Scott, I know you’re in here!”_

The arm around my belly relaxed, my mate and I settling down quickly when we recognised the voice to be Stiles’s. He’d found Scott and now the issue was literally on the doorstep waiting for him. He had no reason to avoid it now.

“ _I’m not a fucking idiot, Scott, your bike is in the driveway!”_

He was the only one who didn’t relax upon noticing it was Stiles at the front door, his face distorting in dread instead while his shoulders slumped. He looked to us for support, his brows lifting in desperation.

Theo and I merely shook our heads.

“You gotta face him sometime.” I shrugged sympathetically, following my mate’s hands while he drew me closer and in-between his legs. Even though it was Stiles, he still wasn’t as fond of him as he was of Scott; his instincts wanted me and the babies closer. “We’ll be right in here if you need us.”

“I don’t think I’m ready, guys, I can’t-”

_“Scott Gregorio McCall! I know you’re here and now the neighbours know you’re here and… I don’t know where I’m going with this but if you don’t let me in I’m damn well breaking in! You can’t ignore me for the rest of your life!”_

Theo lifted a brow at Scott and stared.   
“If he breaks our door down, you’re paying to fix it. Go.”

“You have to see him.” I nodded softly to encourage him. “We’ll be right here.”

He steeled himself, gritting his teeth and nodding shortly before forcing himself to stand up. He gave us one last hopeful glance before disappearing down the hallway to open the door to his best friend.

I cuddled into Theo and we sat to listen when the door cracked open.

The banging finally stopped and the house was quiet for at least five whole seconds before Stiles’s voice came out, softer and hurt.

“You didn’t return any of my calls.” He said, his voice almost breaking on the words.

I heard the deep sigh that came from Scott’s lungs, almost saw the way he lifted a hand to his hair.

“I know, I just… I don’t… I can’t…” Another sigh. “You don’t _understand._ ”

We heard footsteps – Scott’s first, and then Stiles’s coming after his. The door closed and their voices echoed gently from the kitchen.

“Then _help_ me to understand.” Stiles begged his best friend. “Please, Scott, you’re… you’re like my _brother._ I love you, and I… I know there’s a lot we need to talk about and I should’ve _told_ you about Derek and me-”

“ _Yes,_ you should’ve.”

“But I can’t lose you over this. It’s been killing me not talking to you, not having you return my calls or even show any sign that you were still _alive…_ I just. Derek… god, he makes me so fucking mad and he’s the biggest asshole but I… well. I think I love him.”

The breath rushed from Scott’s chest just as it rushed out from mine.

I smiled softly, curling my hands around Theo’s arms and laying down onto the mattress with him once more. His body bound around mine from behind me and we snuggled under the blanket together, Stiles’s words reminding us of when we first started to fall for each other. He and I had been the same; we drove each other mad and we were total assholes to each other, but no one made us feel quite like the other did when we were together.

I could still remember the way my heart used to pound when Theo was around. I could remember the way his presence made me nervous and the scent of his skin would chase me around school when he wasn’t even there. I was so goddamn attracted to him and I didn’t even know it.

I still even got butterflies in my belly whenever he touched me or when he smiled – although half the time now, it was one of the babies rolling around. It was that very concept that made the memories even more incredible, because after starting off so unsure and tense around each other, now Theo and I were _mates._ We were physically bound together, connected by our blood and had become inseparable – and we were waiting patiently while I grew our two biological babies inside me.

I knew Theo was thinking about the same thing, could feel the soft smile on the back of my neck where he pressed an endless flutter of kisses. His fingers threaded with mine and he scooted closer behind me, just to get as close as was possible with clothes on and guests in the house as we thought about how far we’d come and how incredible we were together.

Maybe Derek and Stiles would end up the same – just without the biological babies.

“How long?” Scott asked, finally. “How long have you… been…?”

It was quiet again for a few more hesitant seconds before an answer came.

“First time we slept together was the night he came back to Beacon Hills after Liam was taken.” He blew a breath out helplessly, as though he was letting his dignity blow away with it. “We were kind of involved before that, but…”

“ _When.”_

I could just imagine the pained grimace across Stiles’s face.

“Scott-”

“ _When, Stiles?”_

The desperate breath left Stiles’s lips and I heard his footsteps as he paced.

“Mexico.” He blurted hysterically. “We kissed in Mexico. Then he disappeared for a year or so and we didn’t really talk but when he came back all that sexual tension just resurfaced and… Scott, _I’m sorry.”_

“You’ve _kept this_ from me since _Mexico?”_ The alpha sounded incredulous, exasperated. “ _Mexico, Stiles!”_

“I’m _sorry! I’m so sorry!_ I… I didn’t know what you’d say, how to tell you! I was afraid you’d… I thought you’d see me different! I couldn’t bear to think that I disgusted you!”

“So you _hid_ that part of yourself for almost two years?! I’m your best friend, how could you just… _god_ , I can’t do this.”

“Scott, _please! Please,_ just listen to me! I can’t _lose you over this!”_

“You- _ugh._ ” Scott’s footsteps thumped through the house as he moved from the kitchen through to the lounge room. I could hear his heartbeat pounding and hurting from where Theo and I lay. “You’re not going to _lose me_ , I’m just… I _walked in_ on you, I _saw_ you guys having… _fuck.”_

“You think it’s disgusting.” The tears were audible in the way Stiles’s voice broke and almost whined. The pain was so clear in his words. “You think _I’m_ disgusting.”

A deep breath.

“ _No._ God Stiles, I could never…” Another deep breath, muffled behind a hand. “I’ve known you since we were _five._ We’ve always told each other everything and just… to find out something so _huge_ and to learn that you didn’t frigging _tell me._ You have to know how much that hurts, Stiles.”

There was a thick sniffle and a few soft padding footsteps. Stiles followed Scott into the lounge room.

“I’m so sorry.” He breathed. “It’s not that I didn’t trust you, I just never thought you’d approve. I was scared of what you’d think. Please, I never wanted to hurt you.”

There was a soft, whispered _shh,_ and the rustle of clothing indicated that Scott had pulled his best friend in for a hug. I heard the scratch of Stiles’s fingernails in the material of Scott’s jacket, heard the hiccups and sniffles while he cried.

“I know.” Scott whispered. “I know.”

“ _I’m so sorry, Scott.”_

“It’s okay.” Sniffle. “It’s okay.”

My fingers stroked over Theo’s gently, the both of us just laying there listening while the two best friends made up in our living room. I felt relieved for them, happy that they were finally getting everything out and moving through the conflict.

Theo was quiet and cuddly behind me, his breaths warm and tickling over the back of my neck while his fingers drummed softly over my heart.

“I should’ve told you.” Came the muffled murmur from the best friends in our lounge.

“It’s okay, Stiles. I know now.” Another rustle of their clothing. “And I don’t think you’re disgusting. I never could. If Derek makes you happy then that’s all that matters to me. I’m happy for you.”

Sniffle.   
“Really?”

“Really. It’s what I’ve wanted to say but I just… I needed to get my head around things, I needed time. I’m _happy_ for you, Stiles. You never needed to worry about me judging you.”

“God, you have no idea how amazing it feels to hear you say that.” Sniffle, laugh. “Theo and Liam have been listening this whole time, haven’t they?”

My mate and I bit our lips and smiled when we were mentioned, trying not to make any noise but knowing it wouldn’t make a difference anyway. Scott breathed a laugh and I heard their footsteps shift on the floor.

“Yeah, they’re down the hall. They knew everything already though.”

“Of course they did. Does anyone else know?”

“No, just my Mom. We didn’t say anything, you and Derek should be able to let everyone know in your own time.”

“Thank god.” Stiles took a breath. “Can you imagine what my Dad’s gonna say?”

A scoff.

“He might not even say anything. He’ll just get the gun.”

Theo shifted slightly behind me and I felt it when he drew an arm out from underneath me to prop his head upon an elbow.

“As sweet as your reunion is,” He called out towards the hallway. “I _was_ sleeping and Liam needs peace and quiet to study. If you don’t mind.”

There were two sets of footsteps, padding in a soft rhythm down the hallway before the two best friends appeared in the doorway. Stiles was red-faced and he admittedly looked a little thin and malnourished, but the happiness that coloured his face would brighten him up in no time. A few hours with Scott would help him bounce right back.

“Sorry again about waking you.” Scott apologised good-naturedly, ducking in to retrieve his phone from the bed next to us before stuffing it in his pocket and looking to Stiles. “What do you reckon, you up for some Borderlands?”

“As long as there’s popcorn.” He agreed enthusiastically, daring to enter the room despite Theo’s protective glances. He looked to me with an eager lift of his brows. “ _Well,_ how’s the belly? Gotta show us.”

My mate held the blanket firmly over my ribs when I reached down to move it.

“He doesn’t have to show you anything if he doesn’t want to.”

I put a hand to his, rolling my eyes at him before pressing an insistent kiss to his protective lips.

“It’s _fine._ ” I told him, prying his stubborn fingers away before lowering the blanket to show Stiles what he was so eager to see.

He seemed enthralled and excited, light brown eyes widening in surprise to see my now-obviously-pregnant belly. He moved a little closer but didn’t dare to reach out to touch me. He knew Theo wasn’t above breaking his fingers just to prove how protective he was over me.

“There’s still only two, right?”

“Course.” I laughed on a nod. “They had a bit of a growth spurt, skipped a couple of weeks. They’re growing steady now, though. They’ve been good.”

Something fond shone in Stiles’s eyes as he looked over me. It was hard to place but a particular expression passed over his face at the sight before him, something resembling curiosity and wonder upon seeing my belly. It wasn’t an expression you saw on his face very often and I barely picked it up, but even just listening to the way his heartbeat softened had me wondering what he was thinking.

“So damn cool.” He smirked with a disbelieving shake of his head. “Do you feel them move yet?”

“Hell yeah they do.” Scott answered for us, the brown of his eyes alight with excitement. “You should’ve seen one of them on the ultrasound Mom did last week, it wouldn’t stop squirming.”

I nodded, looking down over the swell of the babies with a fond smile.

“We’re sure the biggest one is a boy.” I told Stiles. “The little one, we’re not too certain though. Everyone has mixed opinions.”

He leaned closer to the bed with a raised eyebrow, looking upon my clothed belly in suspicion. A low, barely there growl left Theo’s throat at the added proximity but I gave him a gentle elbow to the ribs.  _He’s just looking._

My mate pulled me closer, a huff leaving his nostrils.  _I don’t like it._

“I can’t tell for sure without giving it a poke, but I’m going to put my money on another boy.”

Scott lifted a brow at his best friend.   
“You reckon?”

“Totally. I’m getting the boy vibes in here.”

I felt the roll of Theo’s eyes and he lifted a hand to shoo Stiles away impatiently.

“All right gypsy queen. Let Liam exist without breathing all over him, yeah?”

“Jesus, are you _ever_ going to be nice to me? I mean, I know I broke your nose and all but I honestly thought we were _past_ that. Can’t we just be buddies?”

Theo looked to Scott.   
“Please take him.”

“Okay, okay. Fine. We’re going.” The alpha leaned down to brush a hand over my hair, doing the same to Theo and leaving an affectionate scratch upon his scalp before taking hold of Stiles’s wrist and leading him away. “Good luck with your last day of school tomorrow. Ace that Physics exam!”

“I’ll try.” I laughed, waving when my alpha disappeared from Theo’s bedroom doorway.

It was like the world had tipped back to its proper axis now that Scott had a smile on his face again. He left with his best friend in tow and it was like some of the tension that I’d felt worrying for Scott and Stiles just left out the door with them.

I rolled onto my back to glare up at Theo.

“You didn’t have to be so mean.”

He shrugged, shuffling around beside me so he could lift my t-shirt and press a couple of hot, ticklish kisses to the babies on either side of my belly. The sensation sent the usual tingles shooting through my gut and they ended up zinging in my blood and pooling in my groin. He knew it, too, leaving a few more and making them last just to stir me up. He wouldn’t stop until my skin started to heat up with the arousal.

“He’s used to it. I just secretly wanted you all to myself.”

I dragged his head up by his hair with an exasperated laugh, pulling him to my lips so he could stop teasing my belly with the hot, tingling affection.

“I thought you agreed that I need to study. Got an exam tomorrow, remember?”

“Mmh,” He moaned against my lips. “Just five minutes, baby.”

“You know it’ll be much longer than that.” I denied him with a raised brow. “You and I tend to get carried away.”

“I’ll carry _you_ away. Steal you away to Hawaii and trap you there with kisses and frozen slurpees until you love me.”

_Oh my god, he’s love drunk._

I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and let myself laugh out loud at his ridiculous rambling, loving the way he grinned back before pressing a row of tiny kisses to my lips one by one.

“I _do_ love you, dumbass. We can do all the canoodling you like, just let me finish my studying first yeah?”

“Mm, nope.” His hands stole me away and he rolled us over until my catch-up work was out of reach. He pinned my hands above my head and straddled me, those eyes almost bright green with his happiness while he smirked above me. “You’re _mine.”_

I smiled up at him, finding that not one part of me minded being trapped underneath him. He was the most gorgeous thing in the world, and hearing him claim me as his was something I could listen to for the rest of my life.

I nodded in submission from below, letting my eyes shine back up at him. His thumbs stroked over my wrists and I tipped my chin up to accept the kiss he lowered to my lips, taking a deep breath and sighing contentedly when his love twined in the air with mine.

“Yeah.” I whispered against my mate’s lips. “I’m yours.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well it's 1:38 a.m. here in Australia right now, so it's officially 2018. 
> 
> So Happy New Year to all you amazing specimens! I hope this year shits on us all a lot less than 2017 did (because it shit a whole lot on me, let me tell you.) 
> 
> I love you all so very much and I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint.   
> Mwah. Sending kisses. 
> 
> xxx - H


	25. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

“What is Coulombs Law?”

“Uh…” I ground the heels of my palms into my eyes, trying as best I could to put the words in the right order inside my brain. “It says that the magnitude of electrostatic force of attraction or repulsion between two point charges is… _directly_ proportional to the product of the magnitudes of charges and… _fuck.”_

“Come on,” My boyfriend’s foot nudged at mine gently under the library table. “You know it.”

My Physics exam was in twenty minutes. He’d insisted upon quizzing me to help with the last-minute cramming, as his own little way of trying to make me feel better about it. I honestly appreciated it a lot more than having to focus on my own; Theo just made everything better, more enjoyable – or as enjoyable as studying for a Physics exam could get.

I took a deep breath. _Come on, baby brain._

“And… _inversely_ proportional to the square of the distance between them. Thank fuck.”

Theo grinned across the table at me from behind my notebook, letting his ankle slide up against mine in celebration.

“Told you you knew it.”

“This baby brain thing is getting worse, though.” I muttered with a slouch into my elbows on the table. “I’m forgetting heaps. Who knows how long it’ll be before I’m forgetting that I’ve left the stove on or forgetting to lock the door, or going to school without underwear on?”

My mate laughed adoringly, which only made my pout worse. The way his eyes crinkled in the corners kind of made up for it, though. Theo was beautiful on any day of the week, but he was infinitely more so when he was smiling. He never used to smile before us, and now that he was I never wanted him to stop.

He reached across the table and took my hands in his, circling his thumbs in my palms.

“You _won’t._ That’s why you’ve got me, yeah?”

I half-smiled, enjoying the green shine in his eyes before I nodded.

“Yeah. I’ve got you.”

A brighter grin shone at me before he stood in his chair, leaning across the table and holding a hand to the nape of my neck as he brought me in for a kiss. It was the best kind of kiss, gentle but firm and sweet with just the right amount of suction on my lower lip. It was enough that I would be able to taste him for at least a few minutes afterwards if I savoured it carefully.

It was a congratulatory kiss, one of encouragement and a thousand little _I love you’_ s and-

“ _Ssst!”_

_Clap!_

The hiss came, followed by the annoying clap of an old, wrinkled pair of hands as the librarian cracked down on our ministrations. It appeared that she was well-prepared for winter break to begin this afternoon, because she seemed to have nothing to do now besides interrupt our kisses and hand-holds and touches.

She clapped and hissed at us like we were pests, like birds on her porch or raccoons in her damn trash can. I felt Theo’s eyes roll behind his lids and he gave my lip one last suck before ending our kiss and flopping back into his seat with a long sigh.

I glared over his shoulder at the elderly lady, wishing I could at least flip her the bird without getting into trouble with Ms. Martin. She merely scowled at me over the ledge of her tall counter, shaking her head with disgust and eyeing me before going back to playing solitaire on her desktop computer.

“Homophobic old hag.” I muttered, clenching my fingers in my lap and flaring my nostrils at the sight of her white birds’ nest hair. “She’s probably super religious. You think she reckons I’m the spawn of Satan? I have underage sex with a guy, _and_ I’m pregnant.”

The amused smirk on Theo’s lips brightened my mood.

“I think you’re letting her bother you too much.” He admitted candidly, lifting a brow and letting his ankles snake around mine under the table once more. I settled into his touch, leaning back against the seat and relaxing the tension in my muscles. “Don’t pay her any mind. She’s a hateful little lady who surrounds herself with _books_ all day and the only interaction she gets is with obnoxious teenagers who won’t keep quiet. She’s going to be dead soon anyway.”

“ _Theo.”_

He shrugged.  
“Just ignore her. Take a deep breath and calm all those angry hormones down.”

I huffed a breath in defeat, biting at my lower lip and looking down at the bulge of my belly against the table.

“It’s all their fault.” I muttered about the specimens growing inside my stomach. “They’re doing this to me.”

A rush of breath from Theo’s nostrils came out as a soft laugh. He leant forward in his seat again and reached out to tickle at the rise of my belly from over the table. I lifted a hand to thread our fingers together over the babies and he smiled at me.

“They’re there because of _us._ So technically _we_ did this to you.”

The edges of my mouth lifted playfully and I tilted my head at him.

“It’s your fault, then.”

His smile spread a little further and he shook his head, leaning back and taking my hands with him to rest in the middle of the table between us.

“I’ll take the blame.”

_“Ssst! Ssst!”_

Homophobic hag ruined our happiness again, and I glared back over Theo’s shoulder at her with the air of something sinister before he tugged my attention back to him. I met his eyes with a stressed huff and he lifted my hands in his, kissing over every one of my knuckles before finally heeding the orders of the hissing librarian and letting them go.

“C’mon.” He grunted, opening my notebook once more. “Next question. We’ve got ten minutes.”

I slung an arm over the babies and slouched, waiting.

“Mm, hit me.”

Green eyes sparkled at me once more before he read from the book.

“Define the purpose of the Delta function.”

I watched while my fingers picked at the material of my shirt, stretched over the babies upon my belly while the answer made its way to the front of my brain.

“The Delta function serves to represent the density of a point mass or point charge, as a function that is equal to zero. It’s a linear functional, which maps every algebraic function or multiplicative constant to its value at zero.”

“Fuck, you sound hot when you talk Physics.”

My eyes shot up and I kicked at Theo under the table, earning a snort and a laugh that caught the attention of the librarian once more.

“It’s just _words,_ ” I begged to differ, shaking my head. “I literally just read the definition on Wikipedia like a hundred times until it seared into my memory.”

My mate shrugged, his signature smirk permanent upon those lips.

“Still, it sounds hot. Maybe you can recite the work of Einstein to me next time we have sex.”

I couldn’t help but laugh.

_He’s losing his shit._

“I’d rather not have to think about schoolwork for any longer than I have to.” I sighed. “Once this exam’s over, I’m never going to give two shits about the Delta function or charge distributions ever again.”

My mate lifted a brow, his eyes scanning back down over my notebook.

“Shame. Ready for the next one?”

“Mhmm.”

He read question after question out for me, coaching me and cheering me on quietly until I remembered the answer for every single one. He tried his own methods of helping me to remember, most of which including kisses and low murmurs into the palms of my hands. He justified himself by explaining that with each question I struggled with, I just had to remember which kisses he’d pressed where on my skin when he revealed the answer to me.

Incredibly enough, it worked.

I sat the exam on the other side of the library to him, and every question I stopped short upon, his answers were right there like phantom pressures on my body from where his lips had been not half an hour ago.

Divergence Theorem? The kiss he left on my right wrist: relates the flux of a vector field through a surface to the behaviour of that field _inside_ the surface.

Electrostatic Potential? The kiss he snuck to my lips when the librarian wasn’t watching: the amount of work needed to move a positive charge from a reference point to a specific point inside the field without producing any acceleration.

Boundary Value? When he pretended to kiss my knuckles before sticking his damn tongue between my fingers: a differential equation with a set of additional constraints.

Every single thing he kissed into my skin, I remembered. It was both the weirdest and most incredible way of remembering things I’d ever tried, and I promised myself I’d thank him for it later. I ended up doing fairly well on the exam, finishing up with only three answers I wasn’t confident with and fifteen minutes still left to go.

Theo and I ended up spending those extra fifteen minutes sitting down by my locker, stuffing our faces with leftovers from last night’s mac and cheese while we talked and laughed together in the peace and quiet of the hallway. It was something we hadn’t really done in what felt like forever, what with all the drama of the last few months. It filled my heart with pure love to find that we actually got along really damn well, and it was so easy to find topics we both enjoyed or to make each other laugh.

I leaned over to lay my head upon his shoulder, our arms pressed together and our backs against the wall while I smiled endlessly. I thought to myself for the hundredth time that maybe he and I really were meant to be together.

“You make me so happy, you know that?”

He rested his head on the side of mine, nodding just softly and turning to press a kiss to my hairline. I knew he was thinking the exact same thing as me – he always was.

“I know.” He answered gently. “And you make _me_ happy. Happier than I’ve ever felt in my entire life. You’re everything I need.”

Our hands threaded together over his thigh and I watched as his thumb rubbed up and down against the side of mine. His skin was always so warm despite the chilling weather outside.

“It’s the least I can do,” I laughed softly in response. “To repay you for all those times you’ve saved my ass.”

He laughed too, a small sound in his chest that reached my heart and sent more warmth running through my veins. We were sharing our happiness, feeding each other our emotions through our bond. We were finding ways to become one, even when we weren’t physically inside one another and wrapped up together in a naked heap.

“It’s been quite a few times, hasn’t it.” He agreed softly, nuzzling his cheek against the top of my head. “You can’t seem to keep out of trouble.”

I pulled our hands into my lap, pressing his knuckles against the fullness of my belly above my jeans.

“I’ll have to, now.” I murmured, closing my eyes in bliss when his fingers started stroking. “Got two other lives to keep safe.”

“And three for me.” He added, the soft tone in his voice just so faint and relaxed as the both of us rested.

Our hearts were slow and steady in our chests and the hallway was just so quiet. The two of us almost drifted off into the world between awake and asleep, dozing against each other’s shoulders when the damn bell had to ring.

It screamed out above us just like it had on my first day back – because for some reason my locker just _had_ to be right below it – and we jumped. We knocked heads and our fingers twisted together as we were jolted violently back to consciousness in one frantic moment.

“If I give you a boost, would you rip the wires out of that fucking thing?” My mate grumbled, reaching up to rub over my head where we’d collided.

Our hearts were pounding in our ears as students started filling the hallway once more, several stopping at their lockers to change books or have a quick conversation before sixth period.

I ran a hand over the babies while they made short nudges of discomfort from the volume of the sound, Theo’s hand joining in to help reassure them that it was just the stupid bell. They were super resilient, barely giving one more nudge before settling down.

“I take Physics but I’m not an electrician.” I sighed apologetically to answer his question. I nodded down to the babies. “They’re getting good at this.”

He nodded, watching down at my belly where his hand remained with mine even though the babies had stilled already. Students stared and muttered at the sight of us as they moved by but we barely heard them. We were past bothering to hide our affection in front of them.

“They are.” His fingers drummed excitedly over the surface. “ _Hey,_ one week until we find out their genders.”

I grinned.  
“You gonna take a guess on them?”

He gave the swollen belly a pat before getting to his feet and holding out his arms to help me up, cleaning up after us while I packed my bag with books for the holidays.

“I’ve been thinking about it,” He mused, collecting our mac and cheese containers. “And I think the little one might be a girl.”

Just talking about it made my heart flutter, excitement pooling inside me. Theo caught it in my face and put a palm to it, thumbing at my lip before pressing a kiss to it.

“What about you?” He asked, taking my bag and linking his hand with mine as he pulled me off to my very last class before winter break. “What do you think it is?”

I bit the just-kissed lip, pondering over it and paying attention to the weight of the two tiny bodies inside me. There was absolutely no pain or discomfort today, all thanks to Theo and his kisses.

I tilted my head while we walked.

“Honestly, I don’t know. I _really_ don’t know.” I sighed. “It’s just so hard to tell and I think it could easily be either. I can’t make myself choose. _And_ we can’t even be sure that baby A is a boy, either. I mean, what if he’s actually a _she_ and we’ve been insulting her this whole time?”

“Li,” My mate laughed aloud, tugging me further into his side and nudging at me. “That baby is a _boy._ No fucking doubt about it.”

“But what if he’s _not?”_

“We’ll have to apologise, then.” His shoulders hiked. “But we both know it, we’ve been able to feel it for weeks now. He _is_ a boy. And our little one’s going to be absolutely gorgeous, no matter _what_ they are.”

I stopped him outside World History and pulled him against the wall, our knees colliding and my hands smoothing up over the heated surface of his chest from above his t-shirt.

His hands held my waist and we stared at each other, both smiling the softest, most in-love smiles ever.

“They’re both going to be gorgeous.” He concluded with that proud, excited glint in his eye.

I shook my head softly at him, once again completely lost for words and so fucking head over heels for him.

“I love you.” I told him for the thousandth time. “I really do.”

The smile stretched his lips just a little further before he nosed in to kiss me, his thumbs rubbing tenderly into my hips in an extra way to reciprocate my feelings. The teacher could be heard starting the history lesson inside the classroom and my mate joined his forehead with mine.

“Good.”

I grinned, rolling my eyes at the smugness on his face while he pulled me by my hand into the last class of first semester.

 

Students burst out of the building ninety minutes later, cheering and yelling and paying no attention to me for once while they ran and skipped to begin their three weeks of freedom. Theo flattened me against the side of the truck in happiness and pressed tens of proud kisses to my face and lips, soaking up my laughs and cries upon the not-so-violent assault.

“So fucking _proud of you.”_ He celebrated into my throat, wrapping his arms right around me and squeezing as tight as was safe. “Going into winter break with two exams already down. You’re an overachiever.”

I held onto his shoulders and hugged him, grinning from ear to ear at the praise. I almost felt as if my feet weren’t even on the ground, my soul was soaring so high from the happiness. It felt so incredible when he told me he was proud of me, and just to see the pure joy on his face was more than I could’ve ever asked for. He made me want to be proud of myself.

“Not really,” I argued with modesty. “I just saw the opportunity to get things done and I took it.”

“Exactly, _overachiever.”_ Another kiss was smooshed to my lips. “So proud of you, baby.”

I held onto him and buried my face into his throat, smiling against his skin and inhaling the elated scent.

_~~Go back to school.  
Physics exam. ~~ _

“Thank you.” ~~~~

We shared another kiss, a celebratory one initiated by Theo upon my acceptance of the compliment, but it was interrupted when my friends called out to warn us about an incoming Mason Hewitt.

We parted and turned to look, just in time for me to catch the flying blur of running black boy. I had to think quickly, wrapping my arms around him and holding tight with a yell when he half-tackled me against the truck.

 _“Woo!”_ He cried over my shoulder, turning us around in swift circles on the pavement and nearly tripping me over. I almost couldn’t keep up with the footwork. “Winter break, bitches!”

“Jesus christ!” I exclaimed at the amount of energy he had, holding on while he spun us. “ _Mase!”_

“ _Careful_ with him!” I heard Theo objecting from some unknown direction – I wasn’t sure which way was left or right.

“ _Winter bre-eeeak!”_

“Come on, Mase, let him go.” Corey laughed, stopping beside Theo with Malia while my best friend continued to bounce on his toes against me. “Don’t want to force him into early labour.”

Mason seemed to click to the possibility, his arms quickly letting me go and his hands shooting out to hold my shoulders in alarm.

“I didn’t even think of that, I’m so sorry,” He gasped, eyes turning wide and looking down to the babies. “Are you okay? No waters have broken? No pain? God, I can’t believe I didn’t think of that, is it _bad_ that I didn’t think of that? I think it is.”

“ _Mase,_ ” I laughed stopping him before he passed out. “I’m fine, calm down. Just a little winded.”

“ _Good,_ because I can’t imagine what I’d do if I injured you or one of the blueberries.”

His hands fell from my shoulders to my belly and they started to circle and pat, gentle and fond over me but completely unexpected and shocking enough to stop me from breathing.

My eyes widened and I stared, my best friend’s hands freezing when he realised the kind of contact he’d initiated without asking, and all of us fell into a silent void of time where no one moved and my heart pounded rapidly inside my chest. Because he was still touching it and the weight and shape of his hands on the babies was _different_ and not _normal_ and it wasn’t Theo and I wasn’t prepared for it and- _oh god._

“Liam?” Theo was right there, pulling me into his chest and holding my cheeks to get my attention while my eyes remained as wide as saucers. “Li, you can breathe. It’s okay. I’ve got you.”

“It just… it…”

“It’s okay, baby.”

“It’s like _them_ all over again, it’s like when they touched me and I was chained up and… and I was _sick_ and it _hurt-”_

 _“_ Li, look at me. I’m right here.”

“Liam, I’m so sorry.” Mason’s voice registered from the right, softer and in shock after the mood took its abrupt turn. “I swear, I didn’t even think, I just did it. I didn’t mean to hurt you, I-”

“You didn’t hurt him,” Theo told him softly over the top of my head. “He’s okay, you just triggered something.” He turned his attention back down to me. “Baby, are you with me?”

I nodded, finally taking breath after breath and focusing on the weight of his chest under my fingers, the hands he had on the sides of my face. I forced myself to blink, to keep blinking until it turned back into a habit and the pounding inside my chest calmed down.

“Yeah,” I sighed, finally feeling my feet back on the ground beneath me. “Yeah, I’m with you.”

Theo pressed a kiss to my forehead and stroked my face, pulling me into his chest and hugging around me while I looked to my friends apologetically.

“Sorry, Mase, I should’ve told you.” I shook my head.

“It was my bad, I should’ve known to ask before just _doing_ that. You’ve been through shit. I didn’t mean to send you into an episode, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s all right.” I told him honestly. “I’m going to be fine and you didn’t do anything to hurt me or the babies. Just… don’t think I’m ready for other people to touch them yet.”

“Loud and clear,” He saluted me, believing me when I told him I’d be okay. His personality started to shine back through quickly. “Well, we only chased you down so we could give you your Christmas presents before you left, so…”

He turned to dig into his backpack, kneeling on the sidewalk and producing an armful of wrapped gifts that immediately caused me to wonder how the hell he _fit_ them all in his bag amongst his schoolbooks. I looked up to Theo in quiet hysteria and his eyes widened in disbelief, too.

“Guys, seriously?” I cried, separating from my mate when Mason loaded at least five medium sized presents into our arms. “You don’t even work, how’d you get the money to _get_ these?”

Malia smirked and lifted a shoulder proudly.

“We managed.”

“We saw them and we just couldn’t _not_ get them,” Corey explained truthfully, his eyes shining out with excitement. “It was no problem, really.”

“No problem _at all._ ” Mason concluded, urging us with wide eyes and a nod of his head. “ _Open_ them!”

I looked to Theo, on the spot and completely out of my depth while he looked to me and did the same. Neither of us had received many presents in our lives and now we had a whole stack in our arms with no clue where to start or what to do.

At least Theo was smart and started looking for a surface upon which to _put_ the stack, wedging the passenger door to the truck open and laying them on the seat in a colourful heap of silver Christmas wrapping. I stared at him, unsure how to proceed when he stepped aside and smiled, nodding to me encouragingly and leaning a shoulder against the truck.

“Go on.”

I looked to my friends for confirmation and all three of them nodded, their faces so bright and excited like parents watching their child open presents under the tree at seven a.m.

I reached out to pick one and plucked it open at the tape, ripping the paper and unwinding it from the gift until something white and soft fell out – _several_ white and soft things, actually. I held the stack up and two limbs unfolded from it, several pairs hanging towards my feet and helping me to realise exactly what it was that I was holding.

It was a multiple set of overalls. _Baby_ overalls.

Soft and white and so _fucking tiny,_ with little arm and leg sleeves and even feet. They were simple and easy, if the basic clip-up buttons were anything to go by, but to me they were so much _more_ than that.

The wrapping paper fell to the road as I stood and stared at the garments, the material shaking in my hands with my heartbeat.

These were _baby clothes._

Our _first_ baby clothes – and looking at them, feeling them in my hands made it so much more _real_ because holy fuck. There were actually real babies inside me and they were going to _wear_ these. Their bodies would _go_ in these and…

“Fuck.” I whispered, unable to look away. “ _Theo.”_

He was right there, hooking his chin over my shoulder and wrapping his arms around me from behind, cradling me into him and holding me while the tears started to well.

“It’s _real.”_ I told him breathlessly, bringing the overalls closer until they touched my belly. “It’s fucking real.”

I felt the smile on his lips as he reached down to touch the material, feeling it between his fingers and stroking over the tiny little feet. They were barely as long as his thumb, but they would hold the feet of our babies. They’d actually be that little.

They would be actual humans that would come out of me to _exist_ in the world, half me and half Theo and we would be their _parents,_ their _protectors._ This was all actually real and it was _happening._ The baby clothes were for us.

“You think they’ll fit into them?” He asked over my shoulder, asking the question just to get the words out of me so I didn’t suffocate myself with them. “Can you see them wearing these?”

I nodded, didn’t stop nodding while my lips trembled and the tears fell. Happy tears, adoring tears, tears of reality.

“ _Yes,”_ I sniffled, laying the stack in my palm and running a hand over the softness. “Yeah, they’ll fit. _God,_ they’ll be so small.”

My mate nodded, turning to press his lips warmly to my cheek.

“They will be.”

The shutter of a camera sounded and we both looked up to see the grin of my best friend behind his phone while he snapped a photo of us, holding Corey close to his side while they and Malia watched us.

“This is seriously the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” He told us to justify himself. “There’s no way I wasn’t going to document that moment.”

I laughed, the sound coming out breathy and thick while I wiped the tears from my eyes and looked back down over the four-pack of baby overalls.

“They’re so perfect guys.” I whispered, nodding up to them. “ _Thank you.”_

“Like Corey said, we couldn’t _not_ get them.” Malia grinned. “We went into the baby store just to look and we saw all these _things_ and…”

“And we would’ve bought the whole damn store if Mason had his way.” Corey nudged at his boyfriend. “Lucky there was one level-headed person there to pull him back down to earth.”

“Like _you_ didn’t moan and coo at all the goddamn teddy bears too!” Mason scoffed to Corey, shaking his head in exasperation. “Seriously.”

“Open the others, there’s more.”

I looked back up to the four presents still remaining and took a deep breath, steeling myself for the onslaught of emotions that were sure to wash over me in the next five minutes. Theo and I folded up the tiny overalls and started on the stack.

The second present was a set of plush blankets. They were a light grey colour and so goddamn velvety, and we got to hear about my friends’ struggle to pick something gender-neutral as opposed to all the bright pink and yellow blankets with bows and elephants.

The third present held more baby clothes, this time in the form of tiny little beanies and socks and the cutest fucking t-shirts in the world. They were just so _small_ , some white and some grey, and one pair even labelled _Twin Baby A_ and _Twin Baby B._

The fourth present included pacifiers and spoons, and a generous stack of bibs with cute animals and ridiculous statements on them. The first two had lions and giraffes. The third had a line of instructional symbols on the bottom with, _Remove baby before washing_ written above. The fourth was in black and blue writing: _These fools put my cape on backwards!_

It all turned me into one big ball of mixed emotions.

I was laughing but I was crying and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be happy or if I wanted to break down because it was all so beautiful. Theo was about the same, just without the tears because he never cried in front of anyone but me. They were there, but he kept his head down next to mine upon my shoulder and he never let them fall, not once. His laughter was emotional and so in awe next to me, and I think the both of us were just in total disbelief that these presents contained a bunch of baby stuff, and that it was for _us._ Neither of us had ever thought we’d be on the receiving end of such items.

I managed to get through to the last present, which turned out to be a book. A baby book, of sorts.

It was like a journal with questions and space for data entry where I could document the three trimesters one at a time. There was also a chapter at the end where I could write about the babies’ first year of life as it happened.

I shook my head, adding it to the stack on Theo’s passenger seat with a deep breath and turning to my friends, hugging each of them one by one.

“Thank you so much.” I whispered into Mason’s shoulder, holding him close and closing my eyes to keep more tears from coming when they stung. “You guys are incredible.”

“You and Theo are going to be amazing, I know it.” He told me into my ear. “You guys deserve this. Giving you a little head start is the least we can do to support you.”

The tears came anyway, rolling their way down into his shirt while the happiness and gratitude spread from head to toe inside me. I was the luckiest pregnant guy in the world; this couldn’t have happened to a person with a bigger support system. I had the most amazing friends and family – I had a pack, and I had a mate. A mate who would be there for me forever. There were so many people who cared, so many people whose love kept me alive.

“I love you, Mase.” I cried, trying not to sound sad even though I was about to start sobbing.

“I love you too, wolfy.” He patted my back. “We all do. Now, please tell me you’re crying because of the hormones and not because you secretly hate the presents.”

I laughed, breaking away and wiping at my eyes.

“No, I love them so much, they’re perfect.” I stepped back until my heels hit Theo’s toes and the arms that snaked around me held me safe. “Thank you. It sucks so bad that you guys’ll be grounded for Christmas.”

My friends shrugged.

“We figured we could experience a little of it like this.” Malia smiled. “Seeing you open your presents has definitely given me enough Christmas spirit to tide me over.”

“Totally.” Mason nodded enthusiastically. “That reaction is going to last me for months.”

I rolled my eyes playfully.  
“Glad I could be of service. Do you think we’ll still be able to hang over the break?”

“Definitely.” Malia nodded quickly. “There’s no way I’m sitting at home for three whole weeks.”

“Same.” Mason agreed. “We’ll text you soon to organise something?”

I nodded with a grin.

“Of course.” I moved in for one last hug from all of them, being gently crowded in a group hug of laughs and giggles. “Thanks again guys, really. The presents are awesome.”

“You’re so welcome, Li.”  
“The babies are going to look so cute in them.”  
“You have to text us when you go for the gender scan!”

“I will, I promise.” The hug broke and I returned to Theo, letting him help me up into the truck amidst all the new baby items we now owned. “I’ll tell you when we organise it.”

“I’m still positive it’s going to be a girl and a boy.” Malia beamed, nudging provocatively at Corey to get a rise out of him. “They’ll get the best of both worlds, just like I predicted.”

“For the last time,” Corey put a hand out in debate. “Two boys can be cool, too!”

“Girl and a boy.”  
“Two boys.”  
“Girl and a boy.”  
“ _Two boys!”_

Mason joined in while the other two argued upon walking away.

“Why doesn’t anyone go for two girls?!”

 

***

_Ding. Ding-a-ling._

_Ding-a-ling-a-ling._

“Li-aaaam.”

The frown curved over my brow before I was even half-awake. My cheek buried further into the pillow and I groaned at the disruption to my sleep before letting myself try to drift back off. The room was quiet for long enough that I almost succeeded, but-

_Ding. Ding. Ding-a-ling._

My lips pouted when I couldn’t escape the foreign noise.

_Ding-a-ling._

“What the _fuck?”_ I swatted out, my wrist hitting something warm and bony that I soon realised to be Theo’s hand. I opened my eyes to the amused grin on his face and felt like crying for being woken up. “ _Theoo.”_

My mate saw the upset of my brows and the emotional shine in my eyes and was sympathetic almost instantly, an _aww_ forming on his lips before he leant in to wrap himself around me apologetically.

“Okay, we’re grumpy this morning.” He murmured against my shoulder. “I’m sorry, baby.”

I huffed against the tanned warmth of his bare collarbones, shutting my eyes and going slack against him. I willed the stupid tears not to come, but when I couldn’t go back to sleep the frustration brought them forth. I sniffled and buried myself into Theo’s chest, absently wondering what the hell was _with me_ but also knowing that I was _upset_ and so goddamn sad because he woke me up.

“Hey,” He leaned back to tilt my head up and wipe at my tears. “I’m sorry baby, I thought I’d surprise you for your first morning of winter break. Are you in pain?”

I shook my head, sniffling once more and breathing through my mouth to calm the raging turmoil in my brain. My mate looked over my body, holding his hands to my cheeks and feeling me through our bond to make sure there really wasn’t any pain or discomfort.

He tsked and brushed the hair back from my wet cheeks, pushing it back from my forehead as he came to a conclusion about my unusual state of emotion.

“Babies must’ve been growing last night.” He continued to brush his fingers through my hair and settled onto his side next to me. “Your hormones are raging.”

I palmed at my cheek and sighed.  
“Don’t even know why ‘m crying.”

He smiled over me.

“Maybe because I chose the absolute wrong time to be the world’s most annoying boyfriend.” He reached onto the duvet behind him and lifted what looked like a tiny circular bell, tipping it from side to side to recreate the _ding-a-ling_ that had woken me. “Thought I’d be a little Christmasy. Didn’t really work out.”

I squinted at the bell and reached out to take it from his fingers, holding it up and tilting it from side to side in my half-asleep state. _Ding. Ding. A- ling._

“Where the hell did you even get it?”

The lopsided grin on my mate’s lips indicated mischief immediately and I prepared myself to groan at him.

“From the wreath on the downstairs neighbour’s door.”

I rolled my eyes at him, plopping the bell onto my nightstand with the well-deserved groan.

“ _Seriously?_ You can’t just keep stealing shit from them.” He grinned while I scolded him. “First that bucket you took from their garden when I was sick, and now some tiny bell to wake me up in a Christmasy spirit?”

My mate shrugged, rolling onto me and nosing at my cheek to settle my irritation.

“I’ll put it _back._ ” He promised, pressing a long kiss to my face with a hum. He lifted his head and thumbed at my cheekbone. “Do you want to go back to sleep?”

I stretched my legs under the bedsheets and took a deep breath, shaking my head and letting out a long yawn underneath him.

“Nope. I’m awake now. What was the surprise meant to be?”

Theo tilted his head with the softest of smiles.

“Well.” _Kiss._ “I thought we could go on a breakfast date, wherever you wanted. “ _Kiss. Kiss._ “And after…” _Kiss._ “I could take you out driving.”

I lifted a brow at the vague description.  
“Driving?”

His eyes sparkled and I knew there was some alternate meaning.

“Driving,” He confirmed. “As in, you behind the wheel.”

My eyes opened a little wider and I no longer felt so half-asleep. My heart skipped and I almost jumped to alertness at the idea.

“Seriously? You want _me_ to drive?”

He nodded, amused at my surprise. He left a kiss to my shocked lips and sat up, folding his legs beneath him and pulling the bedsheets down to my knees.

“Of course, we agreed that I’d take you out to practice over winter break.”

His hands lifted my t-shirt up to my sternum, trailing back down over my bare skin to hold the babies upon either side of my belly. My lashes lowered and almost closed at the feeling, his fingertips and palms so hot and smooth on my skin.

I felt our little creations rouse at his presence, his lips pressing to their respective sides alternately, over and over again.

“Morning,” He hummed against my skin, letting the vibrations of his voice sink down so they could both hear and feel him. “ _Mor-niiing.”_

I was definitely no longer cranky, letting the smile spread over my lips while he hummed and greeted them with a kind of singsong to his tone. Baby A came up to touch his palm first.

“Wakey, wakey _._ ” _Kiss, rub._ “How’s my little man today?”

_Nudge._

“Mhmm?” He pretended to have a conversation with the baby, like the complete idiot he was. “You slept well?”

_Roll._

“ _Yeah,_ you did. That was a big tumble.”

_Rollllll._

My fingers spread out over the mattress beneath me in shock as I tried to brace myself against the super sensitivity of my insides. I felt the baby’s _bones_ this time, something that never really happened before. He was bigger, more developed and I could feel it when he rolled against the surface.

“Did you feel that?” Theo exhaled in awe, his palm over the roll-site as he looked up to me. I nodded with surprised eyes. “That one literally came right up under your skin. He’s getting stronger.”

I nodded with a hum, watching and waiting while we observed for another. It didn’t come, however. Only the gentlest of nudges.

“You did encourage him.” I mentioned, earning a smile and an admissive tilt of his head.

“You’re right, I kinda did.” His hands roamed and circled over my skin and his eyes followed, searching and feeling and pressing here and there. “You think they had another growth spurt? It feels a little fuller.”

I stretched once more and stirred under his hands, hauling myself up to sit against the pillows and turning to dangle my legs over the edge of the bed.

“Can’t even tell anymore to be honest.” I sighed, waiting while my mate crawled off the edge of the bed to hold his hands out and help me up. “Let’s see.”

We looked down over the roundness as the babies bore down between my hips and immediately I felt the new tickling stretch of my skin as they bulged out against the surface. Theo’s hands roamed over me gently, feeling where it ached and soothing it with warm presses of his palms.

“Definitely fuller.” I commented, feeling down over my underwear where it felt heaviest.

My mate agreed with a nod, his thumbs pressing tenderly into the roundness to feel for the babies. He was able to locate them and I felt it when the pressure of his fingers collided with the firm edges of my uterus, nothing but baby and the fullness of the amniotic fluid bulging underneath.

“Fuck.” I murmured at the alien sensation, feeling odd tingles running up my spine. “I think they’ve skipped another week.”

Theo bit his lip, smoothing one last rub over the babies before leaving them be and turning his attention to me. He pulled on my hands and nodded with a raised brow of concern as he led me to the bathroom.

“I think they have. Maybe I’ll have to ask them to slow down again.”

I shrugged, turning on the water in the shower while Theo bunched my hair up and tied it.

“Your website _did_ warn us that they’d be growing rapidly. Maybe they can’t help it.”

“They can’t grow that fast if it’s going to cause you pain, though.” My mate tilted his head, reaching down to trail his fingers over the swelling above my hipbones on either side. “Right here, I can feel it. It’s like you’re tender in there, like your body’s struggling to adapt quick enough. I don’t want it getting worse.”

I gave a smile at the pure concern on his face, my heart filling up at the fact that he paid attention to what he felt through our bond. He knew where my pain and discomfort was and it was _worrying_ him that I might not be able to handle it.

I tugged him under the water, drawing him close and joining our lips with a gentle moan of relief when his fingers caressed over my tender sides. He held me to his body and cherished me with gentle roams of his hands upon my skin.

I brushed his hair back, wet and dripping from his forehead.

“Would you believe me if I told you you’re like my guardian angel?”

His lips tilted up and he laughed, shaking his head and thumbing at the bite mark upon my throat.

“Definitely not.” He whispered, leaning down to press a kiss to it. “I just want to make sure this is as easy on you and as comfortable as possible.”

“And you _are.”_

He shook his head slowly, his eyes thoughtful while he grimaced.

“All you ever hear is how uncomfortable and painful it’s supposed to be. Women all say that by the end they were just in so much pain and were so tired that they were begging for it to be over. I don’t want it to be like that for you. Not when I have the power to do things for you and make sure you’re comfortable. Not when I can actually _take_ your pain for you.”

He made me smile.

I didn’t care what he said; someone who cared for me as deeply as he did was definitely a guardian angel in my books.

I hugged him under the hot water of the shower, pressing thankful kisses to his shoulder and burying my fingers into his hair.

“You just have to not be stubborn and _let_ me.” He finished softly.

I leaned back and nodded, pressing my lips to his before stepping back against the shower wall and waiting for him.

“Ask them.”

He smiled, dropping to his knees and closing his eyes under the spray of the water as he brought his hands up to the babies and proceeded to ask them to slow down once more, taking at least three minutes before baby A seemed to agree.

He took me out to breakfast, on a date. An _actual_ date – a normal couple thing that we had never done before. It was so unlike Theo but he didn’t seem to mind it one bit. I actually think he got more enjoyment out of it than I did, holding my hands over the table and nudging at my feet, kissing my hands and glaring at everyone who made eye contact. He was absolutely revelling in being the one at the table with me, showing me off and making sure to press as many possessive kisses to my skin as he could to tell everyone who stared that I was _his_ and no one else’s.

It brought a red blush up on my cheeks but he rubbed it all away with his thumbs, grinning at me across the table and reminding me that the attention was nothing to be shy about. Easy for him to say; he lapped up attention.

I ended up ordering a stack of pancakes, drizzled with chocolate and dusted with icing sugar. It arrived to the table in front of me decorated in strawberries and blueberries with one massive scoop of ice cream smack in the centre, both making my eyes pop out of my head and my stomach cry out urgently for the first bite.

Theo laughed at me over his much healthier choice of muesli and yoghurt, shaking his head in astonishment at the stack and nudging at my foot under the table.

“Five bucks says you won’t finish that.”

I looked up from my food to meet the mischievous green glint of his eyes and I lifted a brow ludicrously.

“Seriously, you’re trying to make a _bet_ with me?” I nudged back at him. “Your five bucks is literally my five bucks. Either way, it belongs to both of us.”

He sat back against the booth contemplatively, his eyes narrowing in challenge before the smirk lifted on his lips.

“Fine. One kiss says you won’t finish that.”

I was about to taunt him about his shit betting terms this morning, but looked closer at that shine in his eyes and recognised it immediately. There was more to it.

“One _French_ kiss.” He provided as though on cue, like he was reading my thoughts. “Right here, in front of the entire restaurant.”

My cheeks threatened to redden at the mere idea of swallowing his tongue in front of all these people, but I had more faith in the endless pit that was my stomach.

I lifted a brow instead, leering at him from my side of the table.

“And if I _do_ finish it?”

He looked down to the stack of pancakes, biting his lip while he thought. It took him a moment before he looked back up to meet my eyes, the mood in his having shifted from challenging to placid, affectionate.

“I’ll show you something special. Something I’ve never showed anyone.”

I wasn’t quite sure what there could possibly be about him that I hadn’t already seen, but the curiosity had me nodding to agree, lifting a hand to hold it out over the top of my food. Whatever it was, I was determined to find out. Anything that brought me closer to him was a welcome concept.

“Done.” I smiled softly, shaking his hand and staring at him for a bit before we started on the breakfast before us.

The ice cream had already half-melted and there really was so much damn chocolate drizzled on top that it made me feel a bit sick, but the hungry babies in my stomach cheered me on. Theo sat back against his booth, arms folded and an entertained smile on his lips as he watched me try to finish my breakfast, his eyes green and sparkling at me over the rim of his cappuccino mug.

I sat back to take a break, putting my head back and willing myself not to throw up all over the table while two mere mouthfuls of pancake lay on the plate before me. My stomach churned at the presence of so much dairy and I was sure I’d gained a month on my belly just from pure food inflation, but leaning back helped to ease the pressure.

Theo grinned at me, setting his mug down and leaning upon his elbows on the table.

“Given up? It was a solid effort, really.”

I smiled tiredly, trying to glare at him but not really succeeding.

“Haven’t given up. M’ just taking a break.”

He looked down to the two mouthfuls left on my plate, the smile spreading wider on his lips as he adored me.

“You can stop, Li, honestly. You can’t make yourself sick just to prove me wrong.”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” I lifted a suspicious brow, laughing with him when the sound left his lips. “I can do it.”

I leaned forward, ready to stuff the last mouthfuls in, but Theo reached across the table to stop my hands from taking up the knife and fork again. He pulled the plate away from me, sliding it towards himself and using his own fork to pierce the slices of pancake and pop them into his mouth.

I stared at him as he chewed, loving the smile on his lips around the food as he sabotaged his own side of the bet for me. I shook my head at him, surprised.

“Isn’t that cheating? Thought you really wanted that kiss.”

He shrugged, putting his fork down and taking the last mouthful of his coffee before motioning to the waitress for the check.

“You’re worth it.” He nudged at my foot once more. “Besides, I can kiss you whenever I like. I don’t want you throwing up just because I dared you.”

I bit my lip on the inside to stop myself from smiling like a total idiot, instead only letting a little twitch show before I nudged him back under the table.

“That’s one of the sweetest things you’ve ever done for anyone.”

He winked at me, handing over a couple of twenties to the waitress without even looking at the bill before him.

“Only for you, baby.”  

He stood, tucking his wallet back into his jeans and holding out his hands to help me out of my seat, laughing when I groaned from the fullness. He shrugged me back into one of his jackets and pressed a sweet kiss to my cheek, threading our fingers together and leading me out into the frozen morning to the truck.

He tugged me to the driver’s side and opened the door, holding my waist and pushing me up into his usual spot behind the wheel with a proud smile.

I shifted around in the seat and looked around at the dash in front of me, stretching my legs out to see if I could reach the pedals properly. I rested my hands on the wheel and looked down at him unsurely.

“What if I crash it? I haven’t driven in almost a year.”

He reached up to thumb at my cheekbone, a confident smile over his lips.

“You won’t.”

I watched after him when he shut the door on me, taking a deep breath and waiting until he jumped in on the passenger side and handed me the keys.

“Clutch in, start up.”

I managed to remember which one was the clutch, making sure the gearstick was in neutral before pressing my foot down and turning the key. The truck started and nothing exploded, relief flooding through me to fight at the nervousness floating in my chest like an overfilled balloon. My hands gripped the wheel for security and a hand fell to my thigh.

“You’ll do fine.” Theo smiled at me, leaning over to press an encouraging kiss to my lips and strapping my seatbelt securely over the babies. “Ready to see the special something you won?”

The laugh left my nose.  
“I didn’t exactly win it – you cheated – but _yes._ I’m ready.”

He nodded, closing his hand permanently over my thigh and tipping his chin directionally.

“Take a left out of the parking lot and follow the street north.”

I swallowed, carefully shifting to first and remembering to disengage the handbrake before successfully managing to catch the truck at its friction point, moving out of the parking space without stalling it.

I followed my mate’s directions patiently and as calmly as possible as he gave them, my heart racing a little too fast and my fingers a little too tight on the steering wheel, but I didn’t crash and I didn’t terrorise anyone with my driving skills. The truck was a little bigger than I was used to, but I managed to find my comfort fairly quickly with the reassuring hand on my thigh.

The babies stayed nice and still for me too, not distracting me once while I followed Theo’s directions to the north of town.

“See? You’re pretty good!” He tickled at my leg in praise, lifting one of my hands from the wheel and pressing a kiss to it. “You drive really well, I don’t see what you were so afraid of.”

I shrugged, reminding my body to relax into the seat for the tenth time.

“I just hadn’t driven for ages, didn’t know if I’d remember how. Still need to brush up on my parallel parking, though.”

“It’s easy as fuck once you get the hang of it.” He hummed, lifting his hand from my thigh to point over the dash. “Turn left at the lights and follow the road straight for a few miles.”

I frowned, doing as he said and watching as the farewell sign passed by on the side of the road.

“We’re leaving Beacon Hills?”

“Only _just._ ” He answered, rubbing a thumb soothingly over my jeans. “Just keep following the road, the turn isn’t too far off.”

I nodded and stayed silent to concentrate, trying to kick the creeping anxiety I felt as we drove further and further from the familiarity of town. I had to remind myself that I was with my mate, he would absolutely never take me somewhere that would scare me, or wasn’t safe.

He must’ve noticed the permanent elevation of my heartbeat because his hand started to rub up and down upon my thigh instead of the gentle thumb-strokes from before.

It was only two minutes later when he told me to turn to the left again, guiding us into what looked like a forest reserve. It would’ve been beautiful if I weren’t so damn anxious, the road contrasting against the green of the trees as they formed a thick canopy from above. We followed the road past three streets, many of the houses actually quite lavish with colourful gardens and well-kept lawns.

It didn’t do much to lessen the confusion, however, when Theo directed us to the right and into a dead-end street.

“Right to the end,” He told me, a softness to his voice I knew only came about when he was deep in thought about something. “The house with the black tiled roof.”

I took it slow down the street, glancing around at all the other houses. These ones were further spread apart, more spacious and with bigger yards than the others we’d passed. I pulled the truck carefully into the drive and slowed to a stop at the low iron gates, killing the engine and looking over the house unsurely.

It didn’t even seem like anyone was home. The grass was grown out and the paper hadn’t been collected from the road in what looked like _months_ , several issues decaying and breaking down on the asphalt from the weather.

I looked to Theo, a wary frown over my face.

“Where are we?” I asked softly, carefully. His eyes never left the house before us, his hand not moving on my thigh. “What is this place?”

I could see his eyes darkening with something like a memory, directing down to my lap while he bit the inside of his lip and finally answered me.

“This is home.” He looked up.

It hit me, my eyes widening and searching over his face before shooting back to the house. My mouth fell open and I stared over it once more, speechless while my mate jumped down from the passenger side and rounded the truck to open my door.

I couldn’t move for a second, wondering if it was even my _right_ to see something this deep and personal to him, but his fingers gently took my own and slid between, stealing my attention back down and to his face beside me.

His eyes were in a mixture as they watched me, both with hopefulness and wariness as he gauged my reaction. My mouth opened once more but I couldn’t say anything, didn’t know _what_ to say, so I followed the tug of his fingers and let him help me down from the truck with a brush of his palm over our babies inside me.

The touch grounded my mind, reminded me that we weren’t strangers anymore. We were _together_ , we were the closest people in the entire world and if Theo wanted to show me this part of him, I was going to let him.

I followed close behind him, tugged along by his hand as he led me to the gate and swung a leg over it, holding his arms out for me and taking my weight as I lifted myself over to the other side.

We didn’t move up to the front door, following the lawn around the side of the house instead and to the back door where Theo pushed up one of the windows and reached in to flip the lock. The backyard was empty, unmown and cold where it led to the edge of a forest towards the back. I didn’t linger on it, following my mate inside and breathing in the stale air as he brought me into the kitchen of the house he grew up in.

His arm wound around my back and he held me close to his side, his eyes watching my face as I took the empty home in. It wasn’t actually _empty,_ per se – all the furniture and possessions were still there. It was just empty of _life._

“This is home?” I finally whispered, meeting Theo’s eyes.

He nodded.  
“This is home.”

I shook my head slowly in perplexity, spotting the thick layer of dust over everything before looking back to him.

“It hasn’t been touched. How?”

He shrugged his shoulders lightly, leading me through to the living room with the arm around my waist.

“The real estate never took it back. They originally left it because my family were technically missing persons, but even after ten years had passed they just kind of… let it be.”

He watched me while I looked around, at the sofa with butt-grooves still in the material of the cushions and at the old-style TV with a thick screen and dust covering the buttons. He let me wander, his arm letting me go when I moved up to the TV cabinet to look over the photographs in their frames upon the shelves.

There were a few of children and adults I didn’t know – relatives, perhaps. Some of pets and some of landscapes and yards alike. But I knew when I came across one of Theo’s family – he looked so much like his mother it was incredible.

I reached up to wipe the dust from the glass, peering in at the family portrait that looked out at me. He’d been so _young._ So small and inexperienced, yet he stood beside his sister with the expressionlessness of a ghost. The sociopathy had already hit him then, the boy in the picture so much like him but so foreign in the respect that he had so much boredom burning in his eyes, so much hate.

I fingered the glass over his little face, barely even flinching when a pair of arms wrapped around my belly and pulled me into the broadness of a chest.

“I remember that day.” Theo told me softly to the back of my shoulder. “The photographer told me so many times to smile but I refused, told him to stick his smile up his ass. Eventually he got so impatient to finish the shoot that he just gave up.”

“How old were you?” I asked, still staring over the struggling family in the picture.

“Eight. One year before the Dread Doctors found me.”

I swallowed and took a deep breath, letting my eyes wander over the faces of his parents. They were both brown-haired, both so young and attractive. They were beautiful together, but Theo resembled his mother far more than his father. The only part of his father he inherited were the eyes and the shoulders.

“What were their names?” I whispered, lowering a hand to the pair he had linked over my belly. “Your parents.”

I felt his heart skip with remorse against my back before his fingers stroked upon mine.

“Jonathan and Victoria.”

My heart hurt, feeling and hearing the soft carefulness in his soul as he remembered his parents. I stared upon the young couple in the portrait, finally putting names to the faces and taking a few moments to _meet_ them, in the only way that I really could. I appreciated the memory of their existence, wanted to love them because they brought my mate into the world, created him and built the very flesh and bones that I’d made my home, the very body and spirit that held me at night and was the father to the babies miraculously growing inside me.

I wanted to thank them, so remembering their names and taking care of the son they left behind would be my way of doing so.

I turned away from the portrait, finding the much older and infinitely more stunning face of Theo, _my_ Theo, feeling the gentleness of his hands on my hips and relishing in the strokes and touches he left behind.

“Where’s your room?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper in the peaceful silence of the house. “Can you show it to me?”

He nodded, taking both of my hands in his and stepping backwards, leading me out of the living room and down a hallway. He pushed the door open for me, peered inside at the spotless bedroom beyond before running a hand over my waist to catch my attention.

He tilted his head in the direction of the door at the end of the hallway.

“I just want to get something from my parents’ room.” He left a rub over the babies before taking a step back. “Go in if you want.”

I watched him back away, nodding as he went before stepping into his old bedroom and leaving him to do whatever personal thing he needed to do. I observed his old belongings – the plain pattern of his bedspread, the shelves of books and a few figurines. An empty picture frame, a study desk with a stack of small, folded clothes on its surface. A wardrobe left ajar, next to empty inside with only a few hangers left on the rack.

It was an emotionless room, lacking any personality whatsoever – as though the person who used to reside in it was detached, absent from reality. It described his old self perfectly; the person who never made ties to anyone or anything, cared about nothing at all and held no sentimentality whatsoever. It was a vast difference to the man he was now.

“Li.”

I turned when his voice called softly from the door, moving over to him when he motioned for me.

I looked over him, checking that he was relatively sound of mind after going into his parents room, not spotting whatever it was he’d retrieved from their belongings. He took my hand and pulled me into the hallway.

“I want to show you something.” He said, shutting his old bedroom door and taking me back through the house to the back door.

He locked it the same way he’d unlocked it, sliding the window back down and taking my hand once more. He led me across the backyard, stepping through the long grass with me in tow until we reached the forest at the rear.

We walked into it, stepping under the thick canopy and avoiding stepping in thick puddles of mud as we drew deeper. The air turned colder the further in Theo led me and I hugged the borrowed hoodie to my chest, my fingers gripping his for warmth while we walked.

I was beginning to wonder just where he was taking me, the babies starting to press down on my hipbones from the walking when the sound of running water reached my ears.

And suddenly it made sense.

It hit me before we reached the location Theo was looking for, and I slowed behind him as we approached the bridge upon the very same river he’d visited ten years ago. I tugged on his hand as I resisted, halting to a stop and refusing to go any further when my eyes widened and my breath came out before me in a puff of cold smoke.

It was the river his sister died in.

“ _Theo.”_ I shook my head, tugging him backwards when he turned to me. “Theo, you _don’t_ have to show me this-”

His hand tugged me back, his arms wrapping around me to keep me still.

“I want to.” He said clearly, his eyes boring into mine with certainty. “You’re the only person I’ve ever opened up to about my past, the only one I trust not to hate me for it. You’ve let me in on your life – I want to show you mine. Please, Li.”

I looked past him with worried eyes, spotting the frozen smoke lifting from the running water of the river. I could almost feel its coldness just by looking at it.

“Li.” My eyes met with Theo’s and my posture softened at the sight of him, so open and bare before me as he waited to show me where one of his worst mistakes had taken place.

There was no way the vulnerable, stunning person standing before me could’ve done all those things from the past. If you’d asked me a year ago I would’ve believed it without a doubt, but now I couldn’t place him as the cause, as the reason everything happened. He was an entirely different person, he’d changed so much in the space of nine months. Now he wouldn’t hurt a _fly_ if I asked him not to, yet he’d been so absolutely heartless in the past to be able to let his sister freeze to death in this river on a broken leg, just to take her heart.

I let his fingers pull at mine, giving in to the tug and following after him. He led me to the bridge, stepping onto it carefully and glancing back at me before moving right to the centre, turning to the railing and facing the river with me right beside him.

I looked down, saw the ice on the rocks and felt the freezing spray of the water as it rushed through. I felt a chill just seeing it, the vacant patch in the middle there where no rocks littered the riverbed. It was perfect, almost as though it were made just for what happened ten years ago. I could almost see her, trying to tread water with a broken leg, hair dripping and clothes soaked to the bone while she looked up at me, at _Theo_ as he watched her slowly drown.

I felt the babies stir inside me, upset at the emotions that were gently coming off of their father’s soul beside me. His jaw was ticking, working in his cheek as his eyes focused upon the very same spot I knew Tara had died. As a child he’d felt nothing, but now all I could smell was remorse, sorrow. Regret.

My hand left his to run up his arm, to turn him towards me to get his attention off the memory in the water. His eyes found mine, his hands reaching out for me as we connected. His soul found mine and he _felt_ me, felt the babies stirring inside my belly.

I hugged him and he hugged me.

I buried my face into his throat and he buried his into mine. Kisses were pressed to the skin and hot wisps of breath blown into the other’s collar.

“I’m proud of you.” I whispered. He stayed silent, letting me tell him what I wanted to tell him. “You might’ve done all these things in the past, you might’ve been the reason your family isn’t here… but in letting those three lives go, you’ve saved _one_ and created two more.”

He pulled away just enough to look at me, to let me see the love and shock in his eyes.

I reached up to run a cold finger down his cheek.

“You’ve saved my life so many times. I should be dead.” I let the smile tip up just softly on my left. “But you kept my stubborn ass alive, without having any obligation to me at all. You kept me alive and you’ve become my home, made my life whole when I never thought it would be.” I drew one of his hands from my back to the side of my belly, let his palm spread over baby A on the right. “And you made them. You made these two tiny lives with me, purely out of love, and you’re staying right by my side to make sure we all survive to see the summer. You’ve turned into the most incredible person, Theo, and you’ve built relationships with people you can now call your pack, your family. You’ve made up for all of this. You can let it rest because here, now, what we have today… it’s _perfect._ It’s what you _deserve._ ”

He shook his head in disbelief, the breath leaving his lips in a puff.

His fingers cherished over a nudging baby A before they rose, lifted to hold my face. He put his forehead to mine, nuzzling close and closing his eyes with me until the rush of the river was all we heard.

“The Burnetts were right when they said I didn’t deserve this.” He whispered over my lips. “I don’t. You may think I do, but to have something so beautiful, so perfect with you… not even the purest of people are this lucky.”

“You do deserve this.” I argued, intending to continue but being silenced by a finger to my lips.

Green eyes watched me before he went on.

“I don’t deserve it, but when we rescued you… when I first found out about the babies. I told myself I would do everything I could to _try_ to deserve it – and I meant what I said. I’ll do everything I can to be worthy of you. Even if it means tying up your shoelaces and dressing you and helping you off the toilet when you’re thirty-eight weeks pregnant because the babies won’t let you sit down without leaning back and spreading your legs a mile apart just to be comfortable.”

I laughed, not realising I’d been crying until the sniffle came from my nose. Theo’s lips tilted up and the tears dropped to our clothes between us, his thumb wiping under my lashes so tenderly.

“I’ll do it. All of it. Because I fucking love you, so much more than I ever dreamed I could love anyone. You are literally my world, Li, and I revolve around you. You changed me, taught me how to feel and helped me to grow a _soul._ I owe it to you to give you everything, because you’ve given me everything. You’ve given me _more._ ”

His right hand fell over the babies between us and I had to bite my lip to keep it from quivering. He pressed his lips to the tears on my lashes, kissing them away with a hand to the back of my head before leaving one more firm kiss upon my forehead.

“You’ve given me a chance at life. A real life. And you’re giving me two babies, two incredible children who’ll be part of you and part of me. It’s supposed to be impossible, but you’re doing it and I couldn’t be more fucking thankful. You’re _everything,_ Li.”

My hands slid up his chest, wrapping around his shoulders and holding him as close as I could bring him, our lips brushing when I nosed even harder against his face.

“You’re everything too, Theo.” I whispered into the coldness around us. “I love you.”

_Kiss._

“I love you, too. Always.”

  
***

  
Theo’s POV

 _  
“The-ooo._ ”

I was asleep when I saw it, the river where Tara died. I saw it as it had been on Saturday with grass overgrown and chilling air rising from the rocks – it was _different_ for me; I hadn’t dreamt of this place for more than six months, but the dream was always of that day. It never looked any different, but now it did.

That tiny detail was what helped me to realise that it wasn’t my own dream I was seeing. It was Liam’s.

I wanted to wake up and wake him with me, because even though I had wanted him to see the place where I’d fucked up so many years ago, I never wanted him to have to _dream_ of it.

_“The-ooo.”_

It was the same voice that usually called to me in Hell, the same whisper of my name from Tara’s lips that meant I’d have to run for my life in the next few minutes. It no longer scared me, but I felt the nervous pound of Liam’s heart and saw through his eyes as he followed the trees towards the bridge at the river.

“Li,” I tried to tell him. “You’re dreaming, you don’t have to see it. Wake up.”

He faltered in his footsteps at my words, looking from left to right and scanning the woods for me.

“But she’s calling…” He responded, his voice almost in an echo. “She needs someone to help her out of there.”

His eyes lingered back to the river and he started walking again, and I wanted to grab at his arm to stop him but I had no body to do so, not in this dream. I could only be heard inside his mind.

“You _can’t_ help her, Liam, because she’s _dead._ Saving her in your dream isn’t going to save her in the real world and that shouldn’t be something that weighs down on your mind.”

“You _showed me,_ Theo.” His voice was urgent as he reached the bridge. “How can I not care?”

He looked over the edge, down towards the running water where it was black and almost frozen, but Tara wasn’t there. I hoped it was enough for him to give up, but knew that even when he was dreaming his stubbornness knew no bounds.

He turned to look over the other side and it was there that my sister floated, still in the same clothes she’d died in with long dark hair all wet and clinging to her cheeks and throat. Liam saw it as I remembered it and I realised quickly that he was taking the images from my memories through our bond – I didn’t know it was even possible, but we were that close that he had that kind of access.

We were dreaming _together_ , in a dream that was half mine and half his.

It was incredible, but equally as scary.

“We need to get her out,” Liam repeated, this time in a lower tone. “Please, Theo.”

“You can’t, baby. This isn’t a dream, it’s a memory. One of my memories.”

“ _How?”_

“You’re accessing my memories while we sleep. I don’t know how you’re doing it, but-”

“ _Ho ho hooo!”_

The both of us were quiet for a moment, the running water of the dream still trickling in our ears. Tara’s body merely floated in the water and she remained quiet, almost as though the memory had gone on a loop and couldn’t continue.

“What the hell was that?” Li asked, and I would’ve shook my head if I had a body.

“I have no clue. I don’t remember that sound.”

_“Ho ho hooo!”_

“It sounds like…”

“It’s coming from the real world. We have to wake up.”

My eyes opened first.

I sat up from the pillows quickly, scanning the room for the sound that we’d heard in our sleep but finding nothing. I just looked down to Liam’s body beside me to find his eyes opening, his breath drawing in as he stirred awake when the sound came once more – and this time I understood with a roll of my eyes.

_“Ho ho hooo! You’d better be awake, kids!”_

Li frowned up at me, palming the hair from his eyes and sitting up on his elbows slowly.

“Who the hell…?”

“ _Stilinski._ ” Was all I muttered, and said human being appeared in my bedroom doorway in one big blur of red and white. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

The fool was dressed in a Santa suit. He was in my house, standing in my room and looking at my mate and me while we laid in bed naked under the sheets. In a _Santa suit_. Beard and all.

“No, I’m _not_ fucking kidding you,” Stiles responded emphatically while I helped Liam to sit up against the pillows. I stroked at his cheek, lowering a kiss to the side of his head before our alpha’s idiot best friend strode to the end of my bed. “It’s like ten thirty and the pack’s super _done_ with waiting for you guys to wake up so Santa took the initiative.”

I lifted a brow.  
“You’re here to wake us up?”

Stiles nodded obviously, his expression 100% like, _are you an idiot?_

“Everyone’s waiting at Scott’s. Breakfast is ready and we were gonna wait for you guys to get up but it’s nearly damn lunch time and everyone is so eager to open their presents so-”

“Wait, everyone’s waiting for us?” Liam asked in guilty confusion. “I didn’t even know we were all going to Scott’s for Christmas…”

Stiles paused, blinking.  
“Well that would explain everything. I thought Scott _told_ you?”

“We definitely would’ve woken up to avoid a visit like _this,_ had we known.” I shot at him, palming the sleep from my eyes and sitting up properly until the sheets pooled in my lap.

“Oh, thanks. So glad to know you enjoy my presence.”

“Seriously, get out.” I glared at him. “We’re naked.”

“Great, just great.” The hands flew up. “So you guys sleep spooning all night _and_ you’re naked.”

I stared.  
“What’s your point?”

“It’s _cute!_ ” Stiles complained. “So cute it’s sickening! Why can’t I wake up being spooned every once in a while? All I get is a back to my face and maybe a fart wafting up from under the sheets if I’m lucky.”

I had to fight the smirk that begged to smear across my mouth, biting at my lip and forcing myself to keep a straight face. Li was about the same beside me; I could feel the silent laughter trickling out of him and held his hand under the duvet.

“Derek sleeps with you? How does he get past your Dad?”

Stiles shrugged at him.  
“Climbs to my window. He’s like, the least cuddly sleeper ever, it’s…”

 _“Sad,_ yeah, have a cry.” I scorned at him, impatience growing in my chest at his extended visit to my bedroom. I was unable to take him seriously in the dumbfuck suit. “Get out so we can dress. And take that shit off, you look like a pedophile.”

The snort of laughter came softly from beside me while Li looked over him, his eyes bright and vibrant in the morning freshness. He looked so beautiful well-rested.

“This suit is _tradition_ , thank you very much! You should be thanking me for volunteering to wear it – do you know how _itchy_ these things get?”

“I’ll hang you from the ceiling fan by your fucking beard and leave you to suffocate if you don’t get the hell out.” I deadpanned, watching him with the boredest expression I could muster. “The itchiness will be the least of your problems.”

He got the idea and put his white-gloved hands to the air in surrender.

“ _Fine._ I’ll go.” He backed away, pointing a finger between Li and I. “But you two had better be down by the Jeep in five minutes. Those little babies need feeding!”

We rolled our eyes at each other when he left, soft laughter rushing from Liam’s lips when he slumped back against the pillows with a sigh. I turned towards him on the mattress, laying on my side and lowering the bedsheets to see our babies.

“You’re never gonna be nice to him, are you?” He asked with a few fingers in my hair, and I shook my head and pressed a kiss to his wrist.

“Never.”

I put a palm to the roundness that held our babies, still a little shocked at how big he was now. It wasn’t even halfway but it was still a belly – much more than his usual flat stomach. It almost looked like you could fit a soccer ball in there – _almost._ It was firming up heaps towards his underwear line and was super full. The stretch marks came and went as he healed from them, but they still shone like thin red lines at his hips.

His body was adapting to the babies so well, just like he was made to carry them. It was so damn gorgeous on him.

I looked up to those eyes, smiling back when I found him smiling down at me. I leaned up to press a slow, leisurely kiss to his lips to taste the smile.

“Merry Christmas, Li.”

His smile only grew, his fingers soft and warm upon my cheeks as he felt my face, touched me however he pleased.

“Merry Christmas, Theo.”

We shared more kisses, unable to help it due to the attraction in our chests for one another. It still astounded me how damn close we were, how much we craved each other during every minute of every day even though we stayed together for literally all of it. The five minutes Stiles had allocated for us to get dressed and get down to his Jeep were all spent in the exact same spot he’d found us, sharing deep kisses and exchanging soft, lingering touches while our bodies greeted each other good morning.

It was something we’d never get bored of, no matter how many hundreds of mornings we woke up next to each other.

The babies were in jovial moods inside him too, our gentle little baby B even coming up to say good morning when I spoke to them. Yet another thing my heart would never get used to: feeling my own babies roll and tumble under Liam’s skin against my palm. Feeling them respond to my very voice and _listen_ when I begged them not to hurt him. Feeling the hot, firm expanse of his belly under my lips when I kissed it over and over again. The love that burst inside me for the three of them was phenomenal and I would never have it any other way.

“So ready to finally find names to call them by.” I murmured over his navel, an arm under his back where I laid beside him.

“Mm.” He agreed sleepily, a lazy smile over his lips. “I’ll be able to talk to Scott’s Mom today, see when she can do their scan. It’ll be nice not to call them _it_ or babies A and B.”

It made me smile to know he and I were literally always on the same page. Everything we thought, we thought together. And it only took one of us to vocalise it to confirm that we agreed upon the same things.

“Is there any stretching this morning?” I asked him, running my fingers down along the skin above the waist of his underwear from left to right.

He shook his head, laying it back and closing his eyes at the sensations my touch was sending up his spine. I smiled to see him so comfortable; I knew exactly what my touch did to him. He was so goddamn beautiful, I couldn’t look at him for more than a few seconds without leaning up to press a few full kisses to those lips. I was so gone for him.

“Good. They’re listening.”

It had only been two days since I asked them to slow down again that morning in the shower. That wasn’t a large amount of time, but so far Li hadn’t felt any extra discomfort from their growth. It was like their little growth spurt had been enough to tide them over and they were just existing for a while, letting Li’s body adapt and settle down around them until it was time to grow again.

_Beeeeeep!_

We both grinned against each other’s lips when Stiles held the horn from the street below. I could just see it in my mind’s eye: our neighbours looking outside to see what the noise was and finding some young kid dressed in a Santa suit inside a battered old Jeep.

“I think he’s getting impatient.” I murmured, sinking onto my mate to hold him down as I pressed in for another kiss.

Two hands slid up to my hair, scratching against my scalp in all the right ways to earn a moaned hum from my throat and into his before he broke off and laughed against my lips.

“The pack’s waiting, though. We can’t take too long.”

I sighed, knowing he was right. I dropped one last kiss to his lips and left a rub over his belly before I forced myself up, crawling over him and getting out on his side of the bed to help him up for the day.

He took my hands with a smile, his eyes super bright this morning as though he knew the day was going to be a good one. He let me dress him without one single huff of breath, merely watching down at me when I knelt to help him into his most comfortable pair of sweatpants.

We brushed our teeth as quickly as we could and made our way down to the Jeep in hopes that Stiles's incessant horn-holding wouldn’t result in a call to the Sheriff’s Station.

Everyone was waiting at the dining table when we arrived at the McCalls’ house – everyone except for Mason, Corey and Malia, of course. Chris Argent and Noah Stilinski were there, Lydia was there with Parrish, even Derek, Deaton and Isaac were there.

To see their faces all gathered around the McCalls’ little dining table created a somewhat humble air in the house, one of family and _home._ Li’s fingers stroked against mine when they all turned to greet us, Stiles striding past us and whipping off his hat and beard to sit down to eat.

“Sorry we took so long,” He apologised to the table with a sigh. He sat down in the empty seat between Lydia and Scott, directly across from Derek and a few seats down from his father. “Turns out no one actually _told_ them Christmas was here this year.”

Scott rose from his seat to come over to us as we followed the cranky teenage Santa into the kitchen, clapping a hand to my shoulder fondly before pulling Li into a warm hug. Our fingers slipped apart for my beta to wrap his arms around his alpha and I felt my heartbeat quicken at the loss, but tried to keep my protective instincts at bay at the contact between them. It was something I was getting better at.

“I thought Mason would’ve mentioned something,” Scott groaned apologetically, stepping back and running a hand over Liam’s hair. “I’m sorry, I should’ve texted. I hope Stiles wasn’t too weird with waking you up.”

“The suit was enough.” I lifted a brow, laughing a little when Scott’s eyes rolled to agree with me. “Sorry we kept everyone waiting.”

“Not at all, Mom kept everything warm.” He turned and beckoned us to the two empty seats beside him. “You hungry?”

“Starving.” Li admitted, taking my hand and leading me to the table behind him.

We received hugs from Lydia and I shook hands with Argent, Deaton and Noah before sitting down, nodding to Derek knowingly when our eyes met. His lips tilted up and he half-rolled his eyes before looking away, shaking his head only very slightly to tell me to shut my face before I even thought of saying anything. He was in a good mood, his eyes bright and only for Stiles, clearly. It didn’t seem to faze him that they had to hide.

Melissa pulled Li into a hug before he could sit down beside me, breaking apart from him to hold his arms and look down to the babies after they pressed against her.

“Oh, _sweetheart._ ” She gazed over the swollenness of his belly, nothing left to the imagination underneath the long-sleeved t-shirt that hugged him. She shook her head, touching her fingers gently to either side to press and feel. “They did it again, didn’t they? When did this happen?”

“Saturday morning.” He answered with a soft laugh, shrugging and seemingly comfortable with her touch upon the babies. “They’re impatient.”

“That they are.” She agreed with a pat to the crown of the bulge before turning to the oven. She spoke over her shoulder to him, having to raise her voice a little to get past the animated conversation between the grown men at the head of the table concerning guns. “We’ll have to organise that scan for you. I can do Thursday, if you’re free.”

Li’s eyes found mine, shining with comfort at his surroundings. He watched me, the both of us staring for a bit before my lips tilted up at him, telling him a thousand things in one simple gesture. _You’re gorgeous. I love seeing how happy you are with your family. I’m proud of you. Tell her we can do the scan._

His lips tilted up too and he nodded to Melissa while she lifted out a tray of bacon from the oven.

“Yeah, Thursday’s fine. We can do it.”

“Which scan is this?” Deaton asked with curiosity, sipping at a mug of instant coffee with inquisitive eyes. “You look like you’re doing just fine since I last saw you.”

“More than fine.” Melissa nodded to him while my mate sat down beside me at last, his eyes sparkling at me affectionately before he took my hand and scooted closer. “I did his first nuchal translucency a fortnight ago, the heartbeats were brilliant.”

The both of us shared tiny smiles at the memory, the pack members reaching out to serve themselves as food appeared tray by tray before us. I lifted Liam’s hand in mine to press a kiss to the back, letting my lips linger for a few moments longer while the conversation continued.

“So this will be the morphology scan.” Deaton nodded. “I’ve heard that placental complications are more common with multiple pregnancies.”

We zoned out, focusing on each other in our own little bubble while I poured us orange juice. Li collected toast for us, knowing exactly how many rashers of bacon I ate while I knew how much egg and tomato he could stomach without feeling sick.

We didn’t even need to talk about it, and it made us realise just how domestic we’d become. We were one of those couples who knew absolutely everything about the other’s preferences, whether it was with food, drink, films, clothes or even sitting arrangements. We paused to stare at each other before bursting into almost-silent laughter. _We’re ridiculous._

I pressed a kiss to his temple when he leaned against me in an affectionate nudge, smoothing a hand up and down his back when he picked up his knife and fork to eat. When I looked up, Derek’s eyes were looking back at me. There was a different kind of expression on his face, just like the one Stiles had worn that evening he and Scott made up and were looking over Liam’s belly.

It was curious, almost thoughtful and envious while he looked between us, Liam oblivious while he dug into his breakfast. I watched him until his eyes flashed with something sad, right before he blinked and looked away to pick up on the conversation between the gun-enthusiasts at the head of the table.

I watched the Hale descendant for a moment longer, trying to read him to see into his head and pick up on what exactly his deal was, but found that he was as skilled at closing himself off as I was. I got nothing but a façade of serious nods and bright, stunning toothy smiles when the conversation between Scott, Stiles and Melissa took a turn down memory lane.

Li and I listened to embarrassing childhood stories about the two best friends while we ate, finishing our breakfast just in time to hear about Stiles’s first ‘accident’ in first grade. It was a terribly embarrassing story and I was definitely glad I was no longer eating upon hearing it, but Derek never seemed to care. He was shining with adoration and interest, his face a perfect contrast of dark stubble, angular cheekbones and bright green eyes as he learnt about his secret lover’s past.

It was definitely a big change to the usual seriousness in his behaviour. He never smiled quite _this_ much, but I could say the exact same for myself. When I admitted to myself that I’d fallen for Liam, everything about me shifted completely. Derek was in the earlier stages and I was able to watch it from far in the future, I was able to observe the way love morphed a man into something softer, something incredible.

The morning was definitely the best Christmas morning I’d ever experienced, and if the smiles, laughs and comfort radiating from my beta was any indication, it was the best one Liam had ever had, too. There were stories and jokes and so much laughter, the entire table of people just feeling so akin to family that I truly felt _home._

We learnt things about each other that we normally wouldn’t on any regular occasion, heard things both embarrassing, personal and conversational that brought everyone closer on an entirely different level than just friendship. Liam leant his head upon my shoulder and sat against my arm, cuddled up against me in his seat and listening to the family conversation with a fond arm slung over the babies in his belly – and just the sight was enough to make my heart weak. My baby was so fucking home, so happy. This kind of life was everything we’d wished for.

Presents came when everyone finally got around to clearing the table of food and dishes. Many of them were from Melissa and the others, gifts to the children from the parents of the pack while others were presents from best friends to best friends. Li and I even got a fair few, because apparently everyone just jumped at the opportunity to shop for baby items when it arose. We got more baby clothes and a ton of blankets, soft toys and utensils that we’d most definitely need for cleaning the babies up after being grubs. We even got given a few books that Melissa had kept, informational books she’d read through while she was pregnant.

It was incredible how much support we had from everyone around us, and the way Li’s eyes brimmed with tears at the sight of the items told me he was more grateful than words could express. It was becoming incredibly clear to us that our babies were going to have such a big family to see them grow up, and they were going to be absolutely smothered in love and attention once they came. The idea was warm and fuzzy inside my chest, every ounce of my being just so excited for the kind of future we had ahead of us.

The hours rolled into the afternoon and the heater was cranked up inside the house, everyone being given an oversized, ugly Christmas sweater as a humorous tradition in the McCall household. Li and I laid together on the sofa in our matching ugly sweaters, cuddled up and grinning as the youngsters watched corny Christmas films in the lounge room while the adults drank coffee and sat in the kitchen.

It was relaxed and so comfortable, the absolute best Christmas day either of us had spent. It was our first Christmas together, and also our last before the babies would be here. We all just sat and laid on various surfaces in the lounge room, snacking on crisps and desserts while one Christmas film turned into two, and the second one turned into a third.

Li fell asleep against my chest on the sofa, his heartbeat nice and steady and the babies calm and dozing in his belly. The poor thing got so exhausted so quickly, so the nap was welcome. He wasn’t disturbed by the sounds from the film or the laughter from the kitchen while he slept, and I think I spent more time staring at him than I did at the TV screen.

I looked down over the planes of his face. The face that I’d once wished I could explore for months and months without wanting to admit to myself that I actually _felt_ something for him, when I’d not felt a single thing for anyone else in my entire life.

It was a face I was now so familiar with.

I looked over those planes, over and over again. The chestnut brown of his hair, untied and falling over his temple as he slept. Those deep, expressive brows and the dark lashes that hid the most extraordinary pair of blue eyes in the entire world.

The soft slope of his nose and the gentle tip I loved to press kisses to. The hard, striking rise of his cheekbones, the line of his jaw and the delicate curve of his chin, which harboured those beautiful, soft, tender lips. The swollen upper and the full lower, both of them together creating my favourite shape and taste.

Liam Dunbar was so undeniably gorgeous.

He was so goddamn beautiful, and he was all mine. No matter how many weeks passed or how much time we spent joined at the hip, I still couldn’t believe it.

I’d wanted him, deep down from the moment I met him, and now I was bonded to him. Joined to him by blood. He would be mine forever, until the day I died. It was the most incredible thing to ever happen to me and just to look at him, just to think about our future together made me one of the happiest men alive.

When he woke from his super long nap upon me on the sofa, he took me through the house with him while he went upstairs to relieve his poor bladder. Nightfall came and Melissa produced a huge dinner out of nowhere, just as though her oven was one endless shelf of hot food.

The humans of the table drank wine and beer – because for them, it was worth it. Terrible Christmas music played and everyone dug into their dinner, still wearing the ugly oversized sweatshirts we’d been assigned, and Li made a point to avoid the ham on orders from the two medical experts in the room – because processed meat wasn’t recommended for pregnant people. Yet another thing we learnt about pregnancy that we didn’t know.

Dessert came out after dinner and we shared a slice of apple pie, warmed up with a blob of ice cream on top for good measure. I ended up having to finish it when Li’s system decided it didn’t like the eggnog he tried – _and hated_ – and he had to escape to the toilet for the tenth time. 

It settled eventually, when the hour grew late and most of the pack had said their goodbyes and driven home to sleep away their food comas. Melissa and Chris went to bed and Scott, Stiles, Derek, Lydia and Parrish were all who remained.

Lydia was dozing on Jordan’s shoulder on the other end of the sofa to us and Scott was in the kitchen finishing off the dishes for his mother when Stiles and Derek both left the lounge room together. Li and I were both listening when their footsteps slowly approached the kitchen together, and we knew immediately that something wasn’t quite right.

Their heartbeats were racing, Stiles’s more than Derek’s. The anxiety was coming off of him in thick waves and the smell almost made me feel sick.

Li looked to me in soft alarm, his hand in mine giving a wary squeeze but I shook my head softly, silently indicating that whatever it was, Scott would help them. It wasn’t our business.

But in saying that, we still listened in – how could we not? – when Stiles’s voice spoke in a low tone from the kitchen.

“Scott?”

We heard the soft splash of the dishwater as the alpha turned to the question.

“Guys,” Even Scott’s voice was on-edge, and it was clear he’d noticed the off smell of Stiles immediately, too. “What’s wrong? Is everything okay? If this is about what I saw-”

“It’s not.” Derek intervened insistently, his voice slightly lighter and less stressed than Stiles’s. “But we need you to stay calm right now.”

“What?” Scott’s heartbeat rose anyway. “Why?”

I could feel the distress rising inside Liam, worry for his alpha’s safety piquing. I lowered my lips to his hair, pressed a kiss down to remind him that Derek and Stiles would never hurt Scott, not in a million years.

Stiles almost sounded on the verge of tears once more.

“Scott, we need to ask you something. _I_ need to ask you something. It’s something huge, something you might not…”

I heard the rustle of clothing, heard Derek’s heartbeat rise when he pulled Stiles closer.

 _Oh no,_ I thought immediately, because Li and I both knew exactly where this was going. They were going to ask Scott’s permission for Derek to give Stiles the bite. Stiles wanted to become a werewolf.

“Stiles…?”

We heard the exhale of breath from Stiles’s chest, the pounding of his heart as he steeled himself to ask.

“Scott, _please_ try to stay calm. You gotta promise me.”

“I… yeah, I promise. Stiles, is one of you hurt?”

“No… no, we’re fine. Just… _please._ Don’t get mad.”

Li’s fingers squeezed in mine and I held him closer, glancing to Parrish to make sure he couldn’t hear what we were hearing. Scott took a deep breath and I could just see the way he gripped his hair, could see him pacing in the kitchen.

“God, it scares the hell out of me when you ask me not to get mad, Stiles.” He warned. “Is something seriously wrong? Do I need to be worried?”

“No, just promise you’ll try to _understand_. Please.”

Another deep breath.

Liam tugged me up from the sofa, standing and pulling on my hand until I relented and stood with him. I held his waist and moved my head to the side of his to whisper in his ear.

“Li, we can’t, it’s not our conversation.”

“I need to be there for Scott. Even if only he can see us.”

He pulled me along, the both of us standing in view of the kitchen from near the front doorway. It was far enough away that Derek wouldn’t notice our heartbeats had grown closer, but close enough that Scott could clearly see us. The alpha was in distress, his eyes big, brown and worried and his brows just about the same.

He looked over us with shock for a split second before he put together what we were doing, his eyes softening just slightly to convey his thanks for our silent support. He took a deep breath and looked to his best friend and his lover, nodding compassionately.

“I’ll try as hard as I can, Stiles. I promise. Tell me.”

The couple waited a few more moments, but Stiles’s breaths kept growing shorter. We could see the way his shoulders were hiking against Derek’s side and the wolf decided he’d speak for him, get the worst of it through.

“Stiles…” He looked down to his lover before sighing and looking back up to Scott. “Stiles wants the bite, Scott.”

Li and I held each other close, braced and waited for Scott’s reaction.

His face dropped and his eyes grew wide, shooting between the two friends before him as the information relayed inside his head. I listened as his heartrate jumped before skyrocketing, his mouth falling open before he reminded himself of his promises. He took a deep breath and composed himself, stepping a little closer to his friends and laying the dishtowel on the dining table.

“Okay,” He nodded constructively. “You’ve… you’ve put a lot of thought into this, then? You know exactly what it entails, you were there when I went through all of it.”

Stiles nodded, wiping at his face before stepping out of Derek’s side.

“I know what it does.”

“He’s been thinking about it for months, a year almost.” Derek added for him, his tone soft and concerned.

“What about your Dad, Stiles?” Scott asked breathlessly, looking over his best friend with worry. “You haven’t even told him about Derek, how’s he going to react when you tell him you want him to _bite_ you?”

The two of them paused, looking at each other and exchanging a glance I recognised.

It was the same kind of glance that two lovers shared when they both knew something someone else didn’t. It was also the same kind of glance they’d both worn when they looked at Liam and I, that same wistful, thoughtful expression, and I started to grow worried.

Something was different, something they’d left unsaid.

Li felt the same, his eyes wandering up to mine. They were bright with worry, dreaded anticipation. I shook my head because I had no clue, but there wasn’t a thing we could do but stand and watch and be there for Scott if he needed us.

“Guys?” Scott asked slowly, warily as his friends grew quiet. “What is it? What have I said?”

“Fuck, I can’t do it!” Stiles cried, turning to bury his face into Derek’s chest.

The wolf’s arms wound around him, holding him secure.

“Yes, you _can._ You can do it, Stiles.”

“I _can’t._ ”

“You can.”

“Do _what?”_ Scott was beyond concerned now. “Guys, you’re scaring the shit out of me.”

Stiles pinched at his tear ducts before shaking his head in angst.

“It’s not Derek’s bite I want. It’s yours.”

_Oh. **Oh.**_

_Holy shit._

Li and I froze, as did Scott as it washed over us. The implication of Stiles’s words, the reason why he and Derek _looked_ at us like that and _fuck,_ it all made sense.

“Oh my god.” Li whispered breathlessly beside me, holding onto my arms to keep himself steady against my chest.

“You…?” Scott was speechless. “ _Stiles_ , you… are you… do you _know-?”_

“I _know,_ Scott.” Stiles sobbed as quietly as he could. “I _know_ what it means. I want it, I’ve never wanted something so bad in my life.”

“But you’ve just… you’ve _just_ decided you want this, you and Derek…”

“We want it! God, we want it so fucking much it hurts, you can’t understand… I want it, Scott! I want to be like Liam!”

The beta’s legs almost gave out beside me, the breath leaving him in one loud rush while our hearts pounded in total shock. I held onto him while his fingers gripped at me, keeping him upright while our reactions caught the attention of Stiles and Derek ahead. They turned to find us, their eyes emotional and wide and giving us that look again that I now knew was envy, jealousy.

They wanted what we had.

Stiles’s tears fell when he looked over us, shaking his head in apology even though he had nothing to apologise to us for. He looked down over the bulge of Liam’s belly under the huge Christmas sweater and looked back to Scott.

“Please.” He begged his best friend. “It’s what we want. We’ll be able to mate each other. I’ll be able to have _children_ , ones of our own, biological ones. I know what it’ll take and I know how hard it’s going to be but I’ve never wanted anything more, Scott, you need to understand-”

“I understand.” He whispered, his voice soft and faint. He looked to us, his eyes a shocked mixture of defeat and disbelief. “It’s something incredible, a gift so rare and amazing and it makes all these impossible things _real…_ just… Stiles, your _Dad._ You haven’t told him and I can’t imagine what he’ll do when you tell him what you’re planning on doing. And you’ve just started your first year of college, you’ll have to leave after the summer if you don’t wait before getting pregnant. There’s so much to consider…”

“I know, I’ve thought about that – I’ve thought about all of it. All I know is I _want_ it, _we_ want it. And after I turn, if I turn out anywhere near as strong as Liam I’ll be fine, I’ll be able to handle it.”

“It’s not just the strength, Stiles, it’s not just _physical._ It’s mental, too, you’ve got to be able to _take this._ It’s something _huge._ ”

“ _I know, Scott!_ Please, I’m telling you I’m _ready!_ Trust me, _listen_ to me!”

Scott paced, his stress flooding out and through the room to sink into Liam and I. My beta turned to press his face into my chest, winding his arms around my neck and trying to breathe deep.

“I don’t feel good.” He murmured from the stress in the air. “Needa lie down.”

My hands rubbed the length of his back and I led him into the lounge room. The argument continued on in our wake and we returned to the sofa where Parrish had drifted off with Lydia.

Li laid down on one of the recliner chairs, putting a hand to his forehead and trying to breathe steady.

“I can feel him.” He told me on a breath. “I can feel all of them. It’s like one huge storm of feelings and I’m absorbing it, and I know I shouldn’t but-”

“You care about them.” I nodded, brushing his hair back from the arm of the chair. “You care too much to block out what they’re feeling. Just breathe, remind yourself that it isn’t your fight. It’s all up to them and whatever they do, they’re going to be just fine. Yeah?”

He inhaled, nodding and shutting his eyes under the attentions of my fingers upon his scalp.

“Yeah.” He let himself relax, his body softening limb by limb as we listened to the end of the fight in the kitchen.

“If you tell your Dad, I’ll do it.” Scott resolved. He sounded exhausted. “You just need to tell me when.”

“New Year’s.” Stiles said.

“New Year’s? Stiles, that’s a _supermoon._ It’ll last for two nights, you’ll be under so much stress.”

“It’s what I _want_ , Scott. I’m starting 2018 the way I want the rest of my life to be like. If I’m lucky, Derek will be my natural anchor. Please.”

He was doing it the hard way.

It showed just how determined he was, he was willing to do it during one of the hardest times of the year. He was willing to risk his future in college and his relationship with his Dad just to have a chance to be like Liam – to mate with Derek and be able to fall pregnant.

It was huge, one of the biggest decisions anyone would ever have to make. Liam didn’t even get to make it, and even if they’d known about the trueblood legend, the bite had been to save Liam’s life. Stiles was willingly choosing this after everything he’d seen Scott go through, after seeing the danger it put Liam in with the Burnetts and the trauma he’d gone through in trying to accept it.

I wasn’t sure if he was one of the bravest people alive, or the stupidest.

But he’d made his decision and all that remained was Scott’s. Li and I listened while the best friends hugged in the kitchen, muffled sniffles sounding out while they tried to reassure each other.

“Okay,” Scott finally said, his voice thick with emotion as he signed up to change Stiles’s life completely, forever. The breath left Stiles’s mouth gratefully as he said it. “New Year’s.”

I almost heard Stiles nod against his best friend’s shoulder and it was done. The decision was made. Li and I looked at each other in the light from the TV, felt the shock as the words left Stiles’s lips with finality, with promise. They were really doing it.

“New Year’s.”


	26. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so so so sorry this took me so long guys! I like to update for you at least every four days but this took nearly a week :( 
> 
> I've just been super distracted this week and I've been going through a few things, my mindset hasn't been the best and the motivation to write was so slim. I didn't want to force myself because then the quality wouldn't be there and you guys deserve so much better, so I waited until I felt I could write again. 
> 
> I guess I've just kinda felt pressed for time lately to get this fic out to you, I keep telling myself I've got a lot less time to do it than I actually do and my brain has been shitting itself because I don't want to disappoint anyone - although I know it's all just in my head. I think the next chapter may take a few days to get written too, but I hope you guys can stick with me. I'm just going through a little something but I should be back on track soon. 
> 
> Thank you all so damn much for all the incredible comments and support, they are literally what keeps this fic going and I really hope the next 17k words were worth the wait. 
> 
> I love you x

Liam’s POV

 

“I can’t believe you guys are making me do this.”

A gentle laugh sounded against the side of my head, the arm around my waist squeezing me a little closer while we picked and stepped our way through the thickest crowd I’d ever seen in a mall before.

I had never really gone shopping before senior year – my experiences were slim to none and I’d _certainly_ never gone shopping the day after Christmas. I never even knew stores were open; as far as I knew it was a public holiday, but the crowds that now surrounded us while Mason and Malia led us through the mall indicated that I’d been the only person in California who hadn’t known.

They were dragging me out to shop for bigger clothes.

Theo and I had been woken by the incessant, relentless vibration of my phone while Mason called to inform us – not ask, inform – that we were going to the mall to scope out the clearance sales.

After the babies’ growth spurt on Saturday, it had been official: I no longer fit into Theo’s clothes without a little force. His jeans were firm over the bulge of the babies between my hipbones and I couldn’t sit down in them without the waistband digging in. All I could wear comfortably were sweatpants and even our t-shirts were starting to ride up from the waist of my pants. We knew it was only a matter of time before a little underbelly started showing.

“I know the crowds are a little much,” Mason admitted over his shoulder ahead of us. “But the sales are so worth it!”

All I could see of him was his head, traveling through the crowd without a pair of shoulders due to the unfortunate lack of height on his part – which one must never mention to him unless they’re okay with receiving the silent treatment for two weeks straight.

I found it difficult to believe his words, because how could mere sale prices make up for having to get stuck in these kinds of crowds? But I went along with it because I knew that if we didn’t do this now, I’d procrastinate until I was too pregnant to get out of bed.

I had Theo right at my hip, so the daunting press of bodies from all directions was subdued a fraction. He held me close and kept a firm hand over the babies, knowing just how much I hated crowded places. He’d even known when we first moved in together, that Sunday morning we got caught in the rush of shoppers at the supermarket. He’d known I got anxiety then, and he knew it now. He was doing everything he could to keep me calm, to make sure I felt safe.

Mason and Malia led us into the first clothing store they deemed worthy of visiting, immediately going to work at searching for clothing items that wouldn’t make me look like a homeless person. Corey’s mother was the only one who refused to let him come on the shopping trip, insisting that we’d only been apart for four days. It made Mason a little less enthusiastic, but not enough to sway him from achieving his goal in updating my wardrobe.

Theo stayed wrapped around me while we moved through slowly from aisle to aisle and even pointed out a few things that he thought might work, but I found myself in another world completely.

I couldn’t stop thinking about yesterday – about last night.

Stiles and Derek stayed on my mind, clouded my thoughts and distracted me from what my friends were trying to help me do. I just couldn’t stop thinking about them, about the massive decision they had made and the huge favour they’d asked of Scott. Just to see the shock and stress on my alpha’s face had been enough to worry me, to send my veins into a panic because Scott didn’t _stress_ unless it was completely unavoidable. And _Stiles…_ I couldn’t even bring myself to imagine him as a werewolf, let alone one like _me._ I mean, he wanted to get _pregnant._

He wanted to _choose_ this, to be the freak in a room full of humans. He _wanted_ to get called names and stared at and swell with multiple babies, and while I was no longer afraid of the gifts inside me I couldn’t think of anyone who would willingly choose this. It was a complete miracle and I would never trade it for the world, but it came with a heavy price that you could only handle if you had the thickest of skins and the biggest support system possible.

I wasn’t sure if it was just the desperation Stiles and Derek felt to be able to bond together, or if they really were serious about it, but it wasn’t going away and nothing I could do would get them off my mind. I was worried about them, worried about Stiles.

And Theo knew, because Theo knew everything. He felt every wave of concern inside my veins and heard every anxious thought while we circled the store in a slow shuffle of spooning bodies. His fingers were tickling just gently over my arms, crossed over my chest and twined with his while we browsed, and I knew the touches were his way of telling me he was there if I wanted to talk. They were his way of saying he knew.

A year ago, I would’ve palmed off any offer to talk about my thoughts and feelings. I would’ve used any means necessary to escape the situation and avoid it altogether. But now I slowed to a stop. I pulled my mate into the quietest, least populated corner of the shop and stood close, watching the way my fingers roamed and spread upon his chest before looking up and telling him what was bothering me.

His eyes were patient and waiting, watching my face with the most comforting openness. It only made me step closer into his chest, to lower my head to his shoulder and take a deep, cleansing breath.

“I can’t stop thinking about it.” I murmured, positive he could pick up on my voice over the music. He knew what I was talking about immediately. “I just can’t imagine them actually going through with it and it scares me. What if the bite doesn’t even take? Stiles could die, or if it _does_ take something could go wrong when he gets pregnant. He could even come back two weeks after the novelty wears off and he’ll regret it all, want to be changed back. I just… I don’t know what to think. It’s eating at me. It’s like they don’t know how serious this is.”

My mate laid his cheek upon my head and wrapped his arms around me. 

“Stiles and Derek have been tiptoeing around their feelings for what sounds like a pretty long time. Imagine if you were Stiles – if you were still human and knew that the only way you could get as close to your lover as possible was to mate them. You would want that kind of future so badly, you’d do anything to be able to be bonded with that person forever. Hmm?”

I nodded slowly to tell him I was following.

“And then you find out it’s possible to have all that _and_ be able to start your own family with that person. Two guys with the chance to make a family that’s _yours_ , a real one with your blood and your faces, your eyes, your skin and even your toes. Can you imagine the kind of desperation they would both feel to be able to do that if they really, _really_ loved each other? It would be phenomenal. Millions of couples have those very wishes every single day. Can you imagine their willingness if they found out it was all possible?”

“Surrogacy would lose most of its business.” I noted softly, letting a soft smile twitch onto my lips. “I guess I just felt like they were rushing into it because they’re so eager to be together, but if it were us, if we couldn't do this… I know there would be a huge part of me that wished it was all possible. There’d be a huge part of you, too.”

He nodded above my head.

“Exactly. It’s what happens when two people settle together, they start thinking of the future, thinking about ways to grow. Stiles and Derek are adults and Derek is one solid, hard-headed person. He’s softened up for Stiles and if they couldn’t handle it, he would never let Stiles go ahead with this. They’re _ready_ , Li. They’re going to be happy. You don’t need to worry yourself over them because even if something does go wrong, there are people to help and plenty of them. They have all our support and not one of us is going to let anything bad happen to them. Okay?”

I nodded up at him, lifting my head from his shoulder to find his eyes while he stroked my hair back. I felt the tension leaving my chest at his words, knowing he was right. Stiles had Derek, and Derek was strong. Whatever happened, he was going to be just fine.

It was still a little scary to think that Stiles was going to be like me; that he wanted to get pregnant as soon as possible. There would be two trueblood betas in Beacon Hills, two swollen guys walking around town to stare at and two very protective mates glaring at anyone who glanced our way. Part of me found the idea a little daunting, but the other part was excited because I wouldn’t be the only one anymore. There would be another person like me, another person to experience the things Theo and I were going through – and a few more babies to add to the McCall pack family. Something told me it was going to grow very big.

Theo caught the thoughtful smile that started to spread over my lips at the idea and he thumbed at it, smiling back down as my mood improved and the worries that bore down upon my shoulders slinked away.

I leant into his touch and joined our lips, not even caring that some guy two feet away was staring and gaping because _shock horror,_ he was seeing two guys kissing in a corner and one of them was pregnant. I just enjoyed the taste of Theo’s lips and relished in the calmness he poured over me, feeling such an endless appreciation for how well he improved a situation.

“You always know how to help.” I murmured in relief against his lips. My fingers stroked down over his cheek. “Whenever there’s bad thoughts you just chase them away.”

He smiled a little more, leaning down into my forehead in his own way of saying _I know._

“It’s what I’m here for.”

I received another happy, uplifting kiss before his hands circled upon either side of my belly.

“Now. Are you going to actually _look_ at clothes this time?”

I grinned, nodding and leaving one last peck to his lips before taking his hand and following him back through the store to look at everything he pointed out before. Mason and Malia found a generous stack during their hunt through the sales and insisted upon pushing me into a dressing room to make sure they all fit and suited.

I had to admit, putting on jeans and pants that held the babies nice and snug was an overwhelmingly welcome sensation. They weren’t as oversized and baggy as I’d expected and most even fit the length of my leg properly, too. Several of the shirts I tried were roomy enough to accommodate at least another three months of these babies if their growth habits were anything to go by, and although some looked a little wide now and had sleeves a little too long, they were easily pushed up and I knew the babies were going to fill the extra space out in no time.

My friends did a successful job in helping to find the least homeless-looking clothes in the store and we left with a bag full of twelve items for two hundred dollars.

That was how it went for the remainder of our clothes shopping: finding, trying on, trying on again and buying. I was even dragged into the maternity section in Target and forced to look at jeans with elastic inserts in the waist. It was embarrassing and humiliating to say the least and several women stopped to give us strange looks, but after being nudged into yet another changing room I found that the womens jeans actually _fit._

The thighs fit perfectly and the only place that was too big for me was the waist itself – which would admittedly be perfect for later when I had an entire beach ball belly to squeeze into it. So we discreetly picked up half a dozen pairs and I sent Malia through to purchase them with my card, just to avoid the awkwardness at the checkout.

I ended up with at least five bags of clothes by the time my friends were finished focusing on me, both with warm and cool clothes because we guessed that although the babies were growing too randomly to determine a due date, they would probably come right before the summer. I was going to need cooler clothes to fit me if I didn’t want to become a crying ball of overheated pregnant beta.

Part of me considered the fact that buying all these oversized clothes was a slight waste because I would only have need of them for the next five months of my life, but it was when I thought about it that an idea came to me. These could come in handy not just for me, but for Stiles later if he and Derek actually went through with their plans – which I was almost certain they were going to. It would save him both money _and_ the embarrassment of going out to buy bigger clothes in front of a mall full of staring people. In experiencing it myself, I was saving someone else from having to. It definitely made me feel a bit better about it.

My back remained relatively painless through all the walking and trying on of clothes, all thanks to Theo. We still found it incredible that he didn’t even need to do anything but _be_ there and hold me to keep my body from cramping up with pain. It was like as long as our skin was touching in one place or another, every part of me felt just fine. Plus he was a massive help in the change rooms, ducking down to help me into every pair of pants I tried on. He was amazing and I didn’t care what he said; he _was_ my guardian angel.

The babies were good to me too, barely bearing down against my bladder or hipbones throughout the whole morning. They shifted and nudged a bit every now and then, but only when Theo’s hand had stayed away from them for longer than they liked. They only made a fuss to get him right back where they wanted him.

The shopping continued after lunch and we had to wait around outside the dressing rooms of several female stores while Malia tried on outfits for New Year’s – an occasion I found myself forgetting about regularly. The only thing that reminded me was the flitting thought of Stiles and Derek when it came back along.

I’d never even actually celebrated New Year’s properly. I’d never stayed up til midnight to yell and scream when the hour struck, and Mason and Theo agreed that I probably wouldn’t be able to make it this year either. Not without a nap.

Everyone decided that New Year’s should be at Stiles’s house, but only a few of us actually knew that it was because he would need to be somewhere familiar with Derek close nearby when Scott gave him the bite. It was hard not to mention anything to my friends, but knew that the news would come out sooner or later. I just hoped everyone would support him when the time came.

I was a little excited, nonetheless. It would be my first proper New Year’s celebration and I felt determined to be able to stay up and count down with the pack and Theo to ring in the new year. I figured I’d take a nap at eight, maybe, wake up a few hours before it happened. It wasn’t cheating, right? I was pregnant, I had privileges.

“Ohhh my _god.”_

I looked up from watching our shoes on the floor while we walked, slowing when the words came from Mason’s mouth in excitement. He turned to Theo and I, his eyes bright with enthusiasm while he pointed over his shoulder at the store ahead.

“Guys. _Baby stuff._ ”

Oh.

My mouth threatened to fall open in speechlessness while I glanced up to catch Theo’s reaction. He was looking up at the store sign, his eyes searching through the shop from the doorway while it bustled with customers. The checkout queue was at least twenty people long and it didn’t even look like there were enough staff to assist all the customers out on the floor, but Mason’s face was so eager and jovial. I couldn’t say _no._

Theo felt about the same beside me, a curious little smirk lifting on his lips while my friends skipped up to the store ahead of us. He glanced down to me, lifting his brows in soft inquiry and pulling me closer into his side.

“What do you think?” He murmured softly. “Feel like we’re ready? It’s an item on your list we haven’t touched on yet.”

I wanted to smile because he remembered about my stupid list, glancing down to where his hand held me at my waist. I took another look up at the shop before sighing, taking a deep breath and nodding to my mate.

“I think we are.” I answered at last, feeling his fingers squeeze supportively at my hip as we started walking forwards, our steps leisurely and slow while we made our way carefully through the thick throngs of traffic in the mall.

We stepped over the threshold and into the mass of humans and baby gear. He kept me close, our steps never falling out of sync while we looked left and right over the colossal range of supplies around us. This wasn’t just a clothing store; they sold furniture, too. There were rows and rows of miscellaneous items like ten different brands of baby wipes, body washes, diapers and milk formulas. There was even an entire section purely for clothes, blankets, bed linens and burp cloths. To our right were several sample structures for playgrounds and playpens, and a few pairs of parents were already busy with trying to pry their children from the ladders and slippery slides with yells and ear-piercing screams that made us wince.

We glanced to each other dubiously before making our way towards the middle of the store, finally spotting Mason and Malia where they were looking at strollers and baby carriages. I stopped before they saw us, turning to press my palms to Theo’s chest and peering up at him unsurely. We barely dodged a pair of sprinting children as they whipped past our legs.

“Are we sure this isn’t too much?” I asked him anxiously, feeling overwhelmed by the total baby overload. “It’s _different_ and strange and a little intimidating.”

Theo’s lips tilted into a warm smile and he looked up to glance around the store. His hands held my forearms and he shook his head.

“We’ll be fine, Li. This is good for us, gives us something to get used to seeing.”

I worried a brow at him.   
“Are you sure you want to look at _carriages_ though? It feels like a super-parenty thing to do.”

I made him laugh, the adoration clear in his tone while he leaned in to snuggle me. My arms wrapped around his back in an overwhelmed slap of limbs and I huffed into his chest. He swayed us a little, pressing a kiss to my hairline and rubbing his hands over my sides.

“Just take a breath. I know we’re not super-parenty yet but it’s something that’ll grow on us. We just have to be open-minded, get ourselves started. We’ll have to look at carriages _sometime_.”

I nodded with an _mmph,_ knowing he was right. I lifted my face to rest it upon his, the both of us sharing a few lazy kisses before he took my hands and led me to where Malia and Mason were wheeling around double carriages. I almost had to laugh; if I didn’t have a belly, the shop staff would assume _they_ were the expecting couple.

“Guys, there are so many of these to choose from.” Mason’s expression was alight with wonder while he spun the carriage in circles. “This one drives super cool, it’s all smooth and there’s heaps of storage space.”

“Yeah, but this one looks cooler.” Malia argued with a grin. “I can totally see two cute little babies in here.”

I wanted to bite my lip, holding onto Theo’s hand with uncertainty. I was just trying to imagine it – one of us carrying a diaper bag over their shoulder while the other pushed the stroller and _nope._

It so wasn’t _us._ I couldn’t see myself pushing the carriage and I couldn’t see _Theo_ doing it, either. Our faces just didn’t fit into the image; neither of us were the pushing-baby-carriage _type._ I tried to convince myself that maybe we wouldn’t need one but there was no way we would be able to go out just carrying the babies – what if they wanted to sleep? We couldn’t just go about our day with sleeping babies on our chests, especially not without waking them once or twice.

“God, I can’t do this.” I turned to walk away, putting a hand over my mouth to provide nails to bite upon. “I can’t, I can’t, I can’t.”

I made a beeline for the cribs, just to escape the visions of Theo and me copy-and-pasted into a happy family picture where a couple pushed their stroller along the footpath in the park. People stared and gave me the strangest looks when I brushed past them, glancing down in confusion at the swollenness under my shirt, but I barely even noticed. I just tried to get as far away from the carriages as possible, walking faster and faster and almost succeeding before a heartbeat grew closer with familiar footsteps and a warm hand closed over my wrist and turned me around.

“Liam.”

My fingers were pulled from my teeth and Theo folded me into his chest, creating a place for me to burrow into while the thoughts ran through my mind in one misplaced, negative blur.

“I can’t see it.” I told him with a shake of my head under his hand. “I can’t _see_ us, Theo, I can’t see us just pushing a damn carriage like it’s the most normal thing in the world – _I can’t._ Are we just not meant to do this? Are we making a mistake?”

“ _No._ ” He reassured me confidently, the hum of his voice vibrating against me. “Baby, it’s _different_ , I know. I feel it too, it’s a whole new world that neither of us ever imagined being in. But this is not a mistake. We just need time to adjust, just like we adjusted to the babies. It’s the same kind of concept. If we’re not ready to throw ourselves into carriage shopping, then we’ll wait awhile. There are other things we can look at, things we can stomach.”

I took several long breaths, finally coming out from the burrow of his chest. The fresh air was cooler when I lifted my head, and I blinked a few times to focus in the light of the store before nodding sombrely.

“Like what?”

He looked up, glancing around and over my head while he chose something else to focus on. I could tell when he found it, his brows lifting ever so slightly in consideration before he tipped his chin.

“There’s car seats,” He suggested. “Or cribs. Mattresses, bathing stuff. Changing tables. Anything you feel ready for.”

 I shook my head at him.   
“How are you so cool and calm about this?”

My mate smiled, shaking his head back at me with a lift of his shoulder.

“Honestly, I have no idea. If this happened a year ago I would’ve been freaking the fuck out; I’d be way worse than you. All I know is that we’re doing this together. There’s no way I’m ever leaving you to do something like this alone, Li, and I’m not _afraid_ of this. I’m excited for it and it feels _right -_ everything with you feels right. I don’t know where it all came from but ever since we found you in that underground lab pregnant, I haven’t been scared. Not once. Call it instinct.”

“Your instincts are astounding.” I reminded him, heaving another sigh.

“It’s just _us_ , Li. When it’s you and me, it’s like the world’s at peace. It’s like no matter what happens around us, everything is going to be okay because we’re together, we’ve got each other. You and I are so fucking strong together. I want you to remember that.”

_God, he’s incredible._

The uncertainty and discomfort started ebbing away from my heart, piece by piece. Just as it had in the clothing store when I was worried about Stiles and Derek. He might have missed school from fourth grade to twelfth, but Theo had a damn way with words. He knew exactly what to say to make me feel better because he could _feel_ what I felt, he knew what I needed. He also knew just how good he was at consoling me because the bright shine in his eyes when he spoke never faltered; the green fluttered around for me, to remind me that I _had_ him. If I had him, I could deal with anything.

I leant up to press a thankful kiss to his lips, exhaling all the stress from my lungs when his arms snaked around my middle and held me close.

“So we can look at anything else?” I double checked.

He nodded.   
“Anything.”

Upon taking another glance at the extravagant store around us, all the possibilities jumbled up in my mind. I shook my head.

“You choose.” I told him, trusting whatever he would decide on. “Where do we start?”

The smile remained upon his lips while he looked around again, focusing on one corner of the store and taking my hand to pull me forth.

“Car seats.”

I followed with a deep breath, nodding and regaining my equilibrium.

“Car seats it is.”

And honestly, I never knew there were so many different kinds of car seats.

I didn’t even know what rear-facing was all about until one of the staff members mentioned it. She was a kind lady in her late forties with an enthusiastic attitude and a vast knowledge on all things baby. It was kind of relieving to be in the presence of someone who knew basically everything, as opposed to my friends and I who knew basically nothing.

Her nametag read _Sandra_ , and after she glanced down to the obvious rise under my shirt her expression had faltered only momentarily. She looked between us in confusion and her mouth almost opened to say something, but Theo must’ve given her one of his intimidating stares. She smiled again almost instantly, proceeding to tell me that she’d never seen anyone like me before – and I came to the conclusion that she probably thought I was trans. The idea made me a little uncomfortable because there was most definitely a dick down there in my jeans, but it was better than being asked to leave for trying to waste the staff’s time with a ‘fake pregnancy.’

She asked me how far along I was, gaping with surprise when I told her I was almost eighteen weeks with twins. I didn’t think multiples were so uncommon, but the way she cooed and congratulated us made me reconsider. She probably spent all day every day helping women with singletons.

Sandra worked diligently to aid us with whatever we needed help with – which was essentially everything, because our knowledge on everything in the store was next to nothing. She explained the progression of car seats, how they went from the infant seats to convertibles, and then to boosters. She showed us how they were meant to be installed into the car, and I hoped to god that Theo understood at least some of it because my brain refused to understand why there were so many clips and straps.

I felt like a total dumbass. I didn’t know anything about the world Theo and I were about to be thrust into and whenever I tried to learn about it, my baby brain would kick in and shit the information out before I could process it.

Eventually we actually decided on the seat we felt good about. So we did something that felt super fucking weird.

We bought it. Bought _two._ Two baby car seats.

Sandra was more than surprised when we refused the offer to layby the items; I assumed it was something a lot of young couples did. Plus Theo and I were _super_ young, I bet it looked as though neither of us were even old enough to have such a steady income to be able to afford the seats.

But we surprised her time and time again. Mason and Malia followed us as we utilised Sandra’s help to decide on everything – _absolutely everything._

She helped us to choose bath supports that went inside the tub for the babies. We bought those.

She helped us to understand what all the different kinds of towels, blankets and cloths were for. We decided on designs that we liked, threw them in a basket and bought them, too.

She helped us to decide on cribs for the babies, explaining that while some people put their twins together in the same crib for the first few months, it wasn’t recommended. I didn’t even know that suffocation and overheating were risks, and I certainly didn’t know that bed sharing could lead to what Sandra called SIDS: sudden infant death syndrome.

I didn’t think she meant to scare Theo and I by informing us, but it definitely caused a little spark deep inside my heart urging me to protect the babies. Theo felt it too, and it was enough to make him pull me close and thread our hands together over my belly – the belly I was starting to feel was small in comparison to the massive one of a full-term woman waddling around on the opposite end of the crib section.

So after moving past the paranoia-inducing SIDS conversation, we decided with certainty that we would get separate cribs. We were shown all different designs and shapes and were provided with the pros and cons for each one, and after asking for Mason and Malia’s opinions we decided on a convertible crib – an _incredible_ one.

It had a frame that could actually be rearranged to become a toddler bed or a full-sized single bed. It was attractive and so perfect, the crib-form having shelves and drawers on one end for convenient storage _and_ its own changing table. The wood was a beautiful, deep ebony shade they described as _espresso,_ and just imagining two of these in our spare room at home made my heart start to flutter with barely-contained excitement. It was absolutely perfect.

Sandra’s eyes almost bugged out of her head when we added two of those to our list of items for purchase. When she turned her back to lead us to the mattresses, I exchanged amused grins with Theo and my friends at her reaction. It was one of the most comfortable and entertaining situations. It was entertaining to watch this woman try to figure out how we had the money to spend on such items, and comfortable because we didn’t have to stress even _once_ over the prices of the things we chose because we had almost an entire four million dollars to ourselves.

_Thank you, Burnetts._

It was one thing that I could remember feeling so sick with stress about when Theo and I had first decided that we were _doing_ this, that we were keeping the babies and letting them grow. Money. Theo was the only one working, and the only reason I had a few hundred thousand in my bank account was due to the luck – believe it or not – of having my parents’ house available to sell.

I wasn’t saying that it was lucky my parents had abandoned me, although my life was definitely a lot brighter without them in it. And I definitely wasn’t saying that it was luck that I’d been kidnapped by sick, rich, psychotic anatomists, successfully rescued and then awarded with a three and a half million dollar payout… but it all helped. Massively.

My mother always used to go on about everything happening for a reason and I never used to believe her, but now it was starting to ring true. Even through being abandoned and kidnapped and almost used as a human breeding farm, all the suffering had turned out to be worth it. I came out of it with a protective roommate turned mated soulmate, two tiny beautiful lives inside my belly, and a huge chunk of money that would make our future together so much easier.

I would never be thankful for what happened to me, but I could allow myself to accept that it brought me what I had.

So we added a pair of baby mattresses to our purchase list – and a pair of waterproof mattress protectors because, of course, babies and toddlers pissed themselves every once in a while – and moved onto the bedding, deciding on four sets of sheets to get us started. By the time we’d finished browsing on our own through the clothes and miscellaneous things like soaps, milk formulas and pacifiers, our backs were all screaming for a long rest upon a cushiony surface.

Theo and I stood and waited in the thirty-person-long checkout line with our basket full of linens and clothing while Malia and Mason went for a quick trip to their favourite stores before they closed.

Despite the fact that the store was an hour away from closing, customers still flooded in twice as quickly as the ones in the checkout left. The screaming kids remained at a solid constant and I even felt a slight headache starting to kick in in my temples, which Theo felt immediately beside me. He held my head to his chest, an arm around my back to hold me against his side while we waited for the line to move, nudging our basket forward on the floor with our feet each time.

I would’ve been perfectly happy to stand and wait for twenty minutes in a barely-moving line if my back wasn’t so sore and my brain wasn’t trying to drill its way out of my temples – but they were. Impatience and irritability started growing in my bones and Theo’s touches and kisses to my head would’ve started to work if it weren’t for the annoying woman behind us in the line with her little drooling Asian baby on a sling pouch at her front. She didn’t seem to understand the concept of personal space and neither did her child, the tiny pair of feet constantly nudging against my back and making me flatten further into my mate while I tried my best not to turn around and explode at her in front of an entire store.

Theo’s fingers did their best to calm me, kneading into my hip and rubbing up and down upon my back while the controlled breaths heaved in and out of me slowly.

Mason and Malia were fucking _done_ shopping by the time we finally walked out of the store. Our entire bill had been somewhere close to three thousand dollars but we’d barely even blinked, my head resting upon Theo’s shoulder while he whipped out his bank card – the one with both of our names on it – and entered his PIN without so much as a second glance at the price. The teenage girl behind the counter stared at us while the receipt printed, a length of paper almost fifty centimetres long, before she stuffed it into our shopping bag and sent us on our way out.

Leaving the store was a relief in more ways than one.

It was something that we’d gotten off our chests. We’d done the majority of the big baby shopping all in one visit, save for a stroller and baby wipes and all kinds of sanitary stuff. We’d finally just gone and done most of it, gotten it out of the way before I started getting too swollen to go walking for such long amounts of time, and it was all thanks to Mason’s excitement over spotting the store.

We had literally knocked off three items from my list in one day:

__~~Buy bigger clothes.  
Buy baby clothes.   
Buy baby furniture. ~~

So we gratefully left the mall at closing time with the promise of all our big baby items arriving on a delivery truck in the next three days. We said our grateful goodbyes to Mason and Malia and loaded our several fat shopping bags into the backseat of the truck before climbing in and moaning at the relief of sitting down.

It’d been a surprisingly successful day.

When we got home we made a beeline for the spare room at the end of the hallway, sweeping the floor and looking around at the emptiness to try and imagine what it would look like full of dark espresso baby furniture.

We hadn’t realised it, but we took a massive step into the baby world that day. We were beyond reading about the babies’ growth on Theo’s website and talking to my belly in the mornings.

We started actually planning for their lives.

After showers and dinner, I sat against the wall with one of my school notebooks, drawing a map of the spare room while Theo walked back and forth trying to create some form of a vision for how we wanted to lay it out. We erased the cribs’ locations around five or six times and found it difficult to decide whether we wanted to get a rug or not, but right before midnight we had the rough draft pencilled in.

Our taste was modern and tidy, all white walls and dark wood. The cribs were definitely going in the left corner together in an L shape. We weren’t going to paint the room, because neither of us knew how to paint anyway and white walls were easy, simple. We _were_ going to get a rug, decided upon getting a dresser for their clothes and supplies, and we wanted to find some colourful curtains to add a little life to the room.

I added the extras to my list, smiling down over the entire thing because it had suddenly become so much more manageable to look at. It was no longer a list of things I knew I’d struggle to get around to doing. It was a list of items that were perfectly achievable and obtainable. All we needed was time.  

 _1\. Baby names._  
2\. Find out due date.  
3\. Find out the genders.   
4\. English Lit paper.  
5\. World History paper.  
6\. Health class paper.  
7\. Biology experimental report.   
8\. Stroller.  
9\. Floor rug.  
10\. Curtains for baby room.  
11\. Set of drawers for baby room.   
12\. Set furniture up in baby room.

It was an incredible feeling to look over all the items with Theo and feel nothing but determination and comfort. Sure the school assignments were still on there and I hadn’t even had the time to start on any of them since winter break started, but I had plenty of free time on my hands to get them underway.

It was the most relaxing thing to finally fall into bed next to my mate that night, my eyes immediately threatening to close while a hot pair of lips kissed and murmured over both my throat and my belly. I tried to keep myself awake, listening to the whispered details of our day while Theo told the babies about the things we’d gone and done for them. The way they rolled and poked up at him from inside me made my heart swell so huge, because it was all becoming so much more real. First it was the baby clothes that Mason, Corey and Malia had gifted us, and now it was planning their nursery and buying all the stuff they’d need when they finally came out to meet us.

It was indescribable, the kind of feeling we got when we thought about it. The only words I could find to remotely describe it included euphoria, excitement, wonder and realisation. I’d said it a thousand times but it just never got old: the babies would be actual, living breathing _humans._ Baby humans, real skin and eyes and lungs and faces and _fuck_ , we’d have to take care of them, teach them, watch them grow to look just like us… there was so much to anticipate. I still wasn’t ready for it yet and just the _idea_ still hadn’t quite settled inside me; just to imagine every tiny detail our future would hold still overwhelmed me. But I was sure that the day I could think about it and feel like I was _used_ to it, would be the day that I knew I was ready.

For now, Theo and I just enjoyed _us._

We laid together and talked, laughed, kissed and hugged. We snuggled close and became the whole that we belonged as, fingers swaying over bare skin and affectionate murmurs humming against shoulders and throats and collarbones. We absolutely relished in every second we spent together because once the babies came, _us_ time would be more difficult to come by.

So I rested my head upon my mate’s chest, listening to his heartbeat and his voice while he read from his website – read both to me and our babies, because hearing his voice was something we’d never grow tired of. I meant it a few months back when I claimed that his tones were my favourite dulcet tones in the world. It was the sound I was most familiar of, the only sound that truly comforted me. It was the sound of home.

In two days, the babies were supposed to be eighteen weeks. _Supposed_ to be.

It was the day Melissa had scheduled my next scan at the hospital, so we’d find out then whether I was actually eighteen weeks or something much more extravagant. We’d also find out the genders of the babies _._ It was both the most exciting and nerve-wracking idea ever. We’d know if we were having girls or boys.

I tried my best to keep my heartbeat from fluttering overboard at the thought, knowing Theo felt it too while he read aloud to me from his phone screen. I just listened to the facts enunciated by his voice, closing my eyes and letting my body spin into the mattress and through the floor beneath while drowsiness pulled me deeper and deeper.  

“At eighteen weeks, you’re officially four months pregnant. Starting around now, you should begin to sleep on your side instead of your back. The babies and your uterus are getting big enough to press against large veins in the back of your abdomen, which can reduce the amount of blood going to your heart. It can make you feel lightheaded or lower your blood pressure.” I felt him turn his head towards me slightly. “You sleep on your side heaps anyway, so you should be fine.”

I nodded sleepily, smiling when a kiss was pressed to my forehead. The arm around my shoulders held me closer and I shifted only slightly before settling again in his side.

“The babies should be the size of artichokes or bell peppers, or roughly five and a half inches long.”

“Feels like it.” I murmured in between his words.

I could definitely hear his smile as he continued.

“They’re almost seven ounces each and are growing quickly, which is why you might be feeling extra hungry. Your symptoms should include discomforts like swollen hands or feet, backaches – _yes_ – leg cramps, trouble sleeping and even nosebleeds.”

“Hmm.” I hummed with interest. “I only get one of those.”

“So you don’t have any trouble sleeping? It says here that sleeping with a body pillow will really help to relieve your back and hips. It’ll support your belly while you sleep.”

I shook my head.   
“No trouble at all. I’m not even uncomfortable.”

I could smell the grin on him, knowing that _he_ knew it was all because I had him, because of our bond. Being close to him was literally keeping the pains and discomforts away that pregnant people were meant to be feeling fairly strongly by now. He kept me calm and relaxed. His skin eased the ache out of my skin and when our bodies tangled together in our sleep, our minds were joining overnight and keeping each other from suffering sleep issues.

It made me feel just that much more grateful to be what I was, to have been able to mate with Theo. It wasn’t just incredible with helping to bring us closer together, but it kept us – and especially me – in strong, healthy states. It gave Theo the power to make this pregnancy as easy and comfortable as possible, and I was starting to feel bad for all the human women who had to suffer through theirs without that kind of help.

“You’re welcome.” My mate whispered into my hair, earning a muffled chuckle against his chest before he continued once more with his website. “Your belly is rapidly expanding and you’ll definitely be feeling a lot of stretching and pressure as the weight inside your uterus grows heavier. The babies will be growing one centimetre every week and your uterus is almost up to your navel. Inside, your babies are working their muscles to practice all kinds of moves. They can yawn, hiccup, suck, swallow, twist, roll, punch and even kick.”

“Thank god I haven’t been kicked or punched. _Yet._ ”

Another kiss to my head.

“We’ve asked them to be gentle and they’re doing just that. They’re being so amazing for you.”

I smiled when my heart fluttered happily.   
“They really are.”

_I’m so damn lucky._

“At eighteen weeks, a big ultrasound is on your calendar. You’ll be checked for anaemia, apparently with twin pregnancies you’re more prone to it. The babies will be measured to make sure growth is on track, major organs will be checked for proper development, and amniotic fluid, placenta location and fetal heartrate will all be examined. If you want to know the genders, the technician will be able to tell you with 95% certainty – as long as the babies move into a position where their organs are visible. Some babies don’t exactly cooperate.” Theo paused before nudging softly at me. “That’ll totally be baby A. I bet he won’t even keep still.”

It still gave me tingles, made me smile to think that even when we were talking about finding out their genders, we still called baby A _he_ or _him._ It was just like we knew deep in our bones that he was a boy.

“I dunno.” I shrugged with the gentlest of smiles. “Maybe baby B will be too shy to show us.”

The arm around me squeezed again, pulling me harder against his chest while the positive emotions bubbled out of him.

“I seriously can’t wait. It’s going to be so amazing.” He shook his head. “Uh, what else is on here… their facial features are now in their proper position, that’s cool. You’ll need to focus your diet on protein from here on as it’s essential in building cells and helps the growth and development of their hearts, brains, tissues and muscles… that’s pretty much it.”

“Just as well,” I yawned, hooking a leg between his and wrapping my arm further over his chest while he exited the app on his phone and flicked through his emails. “I’m about to crash.”

“Hm.” He laughed gently through his nose, his fingers so gentle while they swayed over my shoulder. “I’m not surprised, we had a huge day. You deserve one big sleep-in.”

My mate clicked his phone screen off, the room around us going dark save for the light of the moon filtering in through the window above. I heard the collision of the phone upon the wood of Theo’s nightstand and his hips angled towards me, his arms bringing me closer until the babies in my belly were supported upon the tenderness of his waist. He’d made himself into my own personal body pillow.

“I love you.” I murmured, my cheek squished against his chest while I spun deeper and deeper into dreamland. “So much.”

I briefly felt a kiss press to my head and a surge of heat igniting between our skins.

“I love you too, baby. More than you could ever know.”

And I drifted off wearing the slightest, sleepiest of smiles with the low murmured echo of his words in my mind as sleep finally came. The last few things I remember hearing were the beats of his heart, the evenness of his breaths and the final three words he spoke into the darkness of our room.

“Good night, Li.”

  
***

  
I spent the next day with Scott. Theo ended up receiving a call from his boss at six-thirty in the morning asking if he was available to do the opening shift at the café after someone called in sick. I could still remember the desperate, pleading tone in her voice when she’d explained to him that there had been no one else available, and I could still hear the way she apologised because she knew that he hadn’t been working because he needed to be with me.

He’d glanced at a half-asleep and grumpy me before I gave him a nod, nudging at his foot with mine under the sheets to tell him that I’d be fine with Scott for a day. So he said yes, calling Scott before he rolled himself out of bed to quickly shower and dress. He pressed at least fifteen kisses to my lips and face before he left, telling me how much he loved me and that he would text me during his shift. It was all attention I was very pleased at receiving, despite the fact that it was a quarter past seven and I was still very much exhausted from yesterday.

He locked our apartment door behind him and I drifted back off to sleep gratefully, waking up three hours later with tangled bed hair and my favourite alpha splayed out against the pillows on Theo’s side of the bed.

Scott was definitely much happier than when I’d last seen him on Christmas. It was clear he’d recovered from the shock of Stiles and Derek’s request, and he was slowly coming to terms with the idea that the bite was what Stiles really wanted. His face had colour back in it and the bright smile he greeted me good morning with was one of the best ways to wake up. What _wasn’t_ great to wake up to was the constant stirring inside my womb, a never-ending tumble of little limbs and bodies that actually curved up underneath my skin, enough so that even Scott was able to see it.

They wanted Theo, I knew.

I could feel it in them somehow, in the distressed ways they tumbled and rolled. It’d only been three hours that we’d been apart but they wanted us together twenty-four hours a day, because that was when both we and they were happiest. They were even a little unsure about calming down when Scott and I asked them to; they weren’t overly familiar with his voice yet but the longer he spoke to them, the more settled they became.

I absently wondered if they would be able to recognise his voice when they were born.

I forced myself up to make a nutritional breakfast, remembering what Theo’s website said about eating and helping to aid the rapid growth of the babies during the second trimester. I told Scott all about shopping from the day before while I ate, laughing at his expression when I showed him the four figures on the total of our receipt from the baby store. He looked at the plan I’d drawn for the babies’ room and agreed that he wanted to help us put it all together.

After breakfast, I forced myself to sit down in a comfy place with plenty of water and blankets available while I put my head down and got stuck into starting my assignments for school. The babies squirmed and poked inside me, but I comforted them with rubs and pats because it was all I could give them. I couldn’t bring Theo home from work just because they were sulking.

I spent the whole day working on the assignments, finding myself distracted often by the exhilarating thought of finding out the babies’ genders tomorrow. It was ridiculous how excited I felt, how eager I was to finally know whether I really had a boy in the right side of my belly and possibly a girl on my left.

There was only one problem I anticipated in the near future, however.

That was the fact that Scott’s winter break from college would be ending much earlier than mine. He was due to be back in Davis on the second of January, which meant that he had to leave on New Year’s Day. I knew he definitely didn’t want to, especially considering Stiles’s condition wouldn’t even be stable until twenty-four hours had passed.

It brought a deep kind of sadness and reluctance to my heart, my eyes almost prickling with tears at the idea of my alpha leaving again to travel two hours away. He’d been such a solid support over the past month, being there for Theo and I through the changes with the babies and the PTSD. I felt like my life would be half-empty without him in town.

I knew I would still have Theo, and Theo was absolutely everything – and I would still be able to text and video chat with Scott almost whenever I wanted, _and_ I’d be stuck into my own schoolwork soon after he left anyway. But it was his physical presence that brought everything together. Just knowing my alpha was _here_ , in town and only ever five minutes away was a concept that solidified me to a certain extent. It solidified everyone. The pack was livelier and more upbeat with him around, Melissa was a whole lot happier and it was just like the sun shone brighter. Scott ignited the world around us all.

I tried to keep it out of my mind, tried to focus on all the positives instead of the negatives for once in my pessimistic life. I made myself concentrate on the fact that Scott was _here_ now with me, sitting by my side on his phone while I started typing my English paper on the laptop. I concentrated on the swirl and stir of the two growing lives inside my belly, distracted myself from my bad thoughts with the exciting thoughts of finally finding out their genders tomorrow.

I kept myself hydrated, fed and focused, and in no time at all Theo was welding himself to my back with a big welcoming hug from behind while I typed my third paragraph on The Andromeda Strain upon our sofa.

Our babies squirmed and jittered around with excitement that he’d finally come home after eight long hours at work, poking and shoving and even almost kicking at the surface to get his attention through the overwhelmed cries from my mouth until he put his hands to them.

They were so totally in love with him, it was clear to anyone who spent a few hours with us. The adoring shine in Scott’s eyes when Theo smothered the babies with attention and love only emphasised that clarity. Our babies were addicted to us, already so spoilt and loving and oh-so-super-excited to be existing with the both of us right there with them; it was the sweetest thing in the world. I felt privileged to be the one carrying and growing such beautiful, pure little souls.

Scott ended up staying for dinner, he and Theo decking out on the sofa while I put my feet up and continued working on my English. It seemed to make the time go faster; it was like putting together words and fighting to understand criteria was just the ultimate time-consuming activity. It also distracted me from the sudden, outrageous craving for a literal bucketload of marshmallows and chocolate. I knew I needed to gain weight as the babies grew bigger to be able to support them, but there was no way I was sacrificing my clear skin for a post-junk food breakout.

I managed to actually complete a rough draft of the essay, surprising myself with how focused I’d been. I wrote the whole thing in one day.

I emailed it off to my teacher for review and sighed in relief when the hot water hit my belly in the shower not minutes later. The skin felt almost bruised, all butchered and tender inside from being thwarted by a pair of very insistent twin babies all day at Theo’s absence. It even felt as though I’d stretched just a little bigger; my belly button was almost flat by now and it was admittedly super weird to look at and touch. It was a little sensitive, too, which Theo absolutely took advantage of.

He loved to taunt me where I was most tender and vulnerable. He ate up the moans and cries as they fell from my throat one by one, almost making me cum from one huge mixture of belly tickles, hard sucks to my nipples, open-mouthed kisses and licks to my navel and the hard, angled fucks of his thickness inside me. He’d become an expert on _Liam._ He knew just how to touch, kiss and breathe in order to send my brain soaring to another planet with my heartrate and blood pressure. One of the aforementioned nosebleeds from his website did actually occur, but not exactly for the reason they listed it.

The only reason I was able to muster happened to just be _Theo._

He was the reason for everything.

He filled me up by the time we were done – as though my belly wasn’t full enough already. A gentle gleam of sweat glistened upon his pecs under the moonlight and his eyes shone into mine upon the pillow we shared, tangled up and catching our breaths while the highs and tingles from our orgasms ebbed away slowly.

My mate never left my body alone, keeping me close while his lips sprinkled an endless string of kisses upon my skin. We kept each other so warm under the sheets, our breaths mingling and our scents so thick with the smells of sex, us and the babies.

Sleepy, exhausted _I love you’_ s were exchanged, and Theo told me how proud he was that I’d finished my first draft for the list of assessments I had to get done.

I let that pride shine through me so bright that it could’ve turned me transparent. It made me realise how much my life had changed, just in that one aspect: before him, no one told me they were proud of me. I never received compliments, and if by rare chance I did, I never accepted them.

Now Theo had turned me into a more solid, confident person. He’d given me the drive to achieve more while simultaneously making the effort to tell me when he was proud. He’d taught me to receive that pride instead of dodging it.

“I’m proud of you, too.” I murmured against his skin, my head tucked under his cheek while we drifted off to sleep together. “I might’ve changed you, but you changed me too. You made me so much better.”

I heard his smile in my ear.   
“Isn’t that meant t’ be a thank you, then?”

I smiled back.   
“That too. Still proud of you.”

He was quiet for just a few seconds after that before I felt his body accept it. He softened even more against me and he nodded, his fingers caressing my skin just that bit gentler while he let my pride and love course through him.

“Thank you, Li.”

We surrendered to the heavy pull of sleep after that, our breaths slowing simultaneously and our hearts beating in sync against one another in our chests.

I dreamt of the babies and so did he, the both of us inside an ultrasound room while a faceless nurse tried to find out their genders. We grew frustrated because they wouldn’t move into the right positions for her to see, the dream versions of us begging them to shift around so we could finally find out.

It was the first thing on our minds when we finally woke on the morning of the scan. We didn’t even need to say anything, wide smiles spreading across our faces when we opened our eyes to each other because _this was it._

Today we’d _know._

We’d know whether we had two girls, two boys or one of each. We’d have a better idea of what to expect and gender-neutral items would be a thing of the past. We’d also be able to start really focusing on searching for the names we wanted to give them.

It was just something that brought so much excitement and joy and helped us to achieve a whole new level of organised and prepared.

But, of course, before I was allowed to even see the ultrasound room I had to go in to have my bloods taken. _Again._

I wasn’t allowed to eat anything until after the test, so Theo and I skipped breakfast and went straight to the shower before dressing for the day – and I got to test out one of my new pairs of jeans that we bought the day after Christmas.

He held my hand tight when we walked through the hospital doors, keeping me close and my heartbeat steady while the awful smells came back to me to remind me both of the trauma from November and the episodes from my last visit.

This time Theo was _there_ for me when I was led by an unfamiliar nurse into the pathology room. He was there like he wished he could’ve been the first time, refusing to leave my side even as the syringe was connected to the needle and my arm was flicked for veins.

I still felt just as panicked as the first time I had this done, but when two pairs of hands fell to my cheeks and turned my head away from the needle, it all fell away. Just the sight of my mate was enough to calm the racing of my heart and the shallowness in my breaths. I stared into him, my eyes almost fluttering shut at the feel of his thumbs as they stroked beneath my lashes – and I didn’t even end up feeling the needle this time.

I had to be _told_ that I was free to stand up, my eyes darting to my right arm to find the little cotton ball already taped over the puncture and the vial of my blood capped and ready for testing. The nurse took it to the lab immediately, giving us a polite smile when we left the room to wait for Melissa to finish her rounds.

“You did so well.” Theo murmured into my hair while we sat in the waiting area. “So much better than the first time.”

I leaned further into him, closing my eyes and just listening to the footsteps and voices around us while the hospital functioned. After the slight adrenaline rush before the blood test, I found myself feeling relaxed and drowsy. It was like my body had completely accepted that Theo was with me this time and had fallen into total chill mode. The only thing keeping me from falling into a nap was the niggling excitement for the scan.

“I’d have been a nutcase if you weren’t here.” I reminded him, refusing to take the credit for the smoothness of the morning. “It’s all you.”

My mate scoffed softly before nodding his head above mine. I could hear the sarcastic smile in his voice.

“Sure, okay. You had no part in your own blood test.”

My eyes rolled behind my lids.

A few more minutes passed by peacefully and smoothly before a familiar set of footsteps started growing closer. _Two_ familiar sets, followed by two familiar smells and two familiar heartbeats.

Scott and his mother approached from the front entrance, Scott having clearly just arrived if the bike jacket over his shoulders was any indication. I smiled to see their faces, standing up with Theo and returning the hugs that I was offered.

“How do you feel?” Scott asked. “Did you get the blood test?”

Theo pulled me into his side with one of those stupid proud smiles on his face.

“He got it done.” He nodded. “He did so well, didn’t even feel it.”

“Excellent. No panic attacks or episodes.” Melissa approved while we followed her eagerly to the right section of the hospital. “So having the mate – boyfriend – there does the trick. Duly noted. Are you ready to see these babies?”

I knew we both tried so hard not to nod like excited five-year olds but it might’ve happened anyway. The only way we could cover up was to answer with straight, even _yes_ ses to the back of Melissa’s head while Scott grinned at us like an idiot from beside us. We knew it was the kind of secret he could keep for us.

The butterflies were raging inside my belly when we finally walked into the ultrasound room – unless it was just the babies fluttering around in reaction to the moods coming from Theo and me. I think it was a mixture of both, so energetic and potent inside me that I almost felt sick with the movement.

Theo’s fingers squeezed mine and I kept from bouncing on my toes like Mason did when he was excited. I felt like one huge ball of jitters and flutters.

I took a seat on the familiar, still-non-threatening-looking bed and Theo sat in the chair beside it, our hands still clasped together while Melissa flipped through several pages on a clipboard.

“Okay… so you’ve had your bloods done, those should be finalised in the next hour.” She started the usual murmuring to herself while she read and checked off with a pen. “Now, since you’re well into the pregnancy we’re going to start doing a few standard antenatal checks every appointment, just to keep track of the progression as each month passes. That includes weighing you, measuring you and, unfortunately, getting you to provide urine samples.”

I bit at my lip from the inside, wanting to shiver a little at the idea of all these things I’d been avoiding letting myself think about. I had made a conscious effort to avoid any and all sets of scales and the idea of measuring just how swollen my belly had grown was sure to make me feel like some phenomenal whale. Peeing into a cup every single month and sending it off to some lab for testing wasn’t the grandest concept, either.

If it was standard pregnancy testing, however, then that meant literally every pregnant person had to do the same thing. Complaining about it wouldn’t get me or the babies anywhere.

“Did you want me to do that first?”

Melissa nodded with an apologetic expression, digging through a drawer to produce a new, unmarked little clear cup with a lid and indicating to the connected lavatory on the opposite wall of the room.

“Take your time, sweetheart.”

I sent an embarrassed glance to Theo and Scott before following Melissa’s instructions and doing my absolute best to pee into the cup without getting it on my hands, spilling it, or overfilling it.

Just the sight of it made me want to gag, screwing the cap on and scrubbing my hands before letting myself out and dropping the container of pee into the brown paper bag Melissa had ready for me.

“Might as well get used to it, sweetie.” She tilted her head honestly. “It’s going to become a regular thing every time we see each other here.”

I tried to wipe the uncomfortable pout off my face, wanting to glare at an almost-smirking Theo before deciding he deserved a shove even more. I almost knocked him sideways out of his seat before Melissa beckoned me over to the daunting set of scales by the door, the exhales of my mate’s laughs crying out in my wake.

He sat and watched with Scott patiently while I took a deep breath and stepped onto the scales, shutting my eyes and keeping my head up to avoid seeing how fat I’d grown over the past four months.

“You said that your pre-pregnancy weight was around one hundred and fifty-two pounds?” She double checked from beside me, and I nodded nervously without opening my eyes.

“Is it bad?” I dared to ask, grimacing as I waited for the answer.

“Not at all. If anything you haven’t gained _enough_ weight for someone carrying twins.” I heard her pen scribbling upon the clipboard and opened my eyes, looking to her expectantly. “You’re sitting at 160.9. Really you should be gaining at least two pounds per week to keep up comfortably with their growth and needs, but it isn’t something you can force. Those babies seem more than happy in there and you’re looking just as healthy as the last time we met. You’re not looking underweight at all, your body seems to be handling it well.”

The relief flooded through me when she mentioned that I didn’t have to force myself to gain weight. I knew that the babies needed it and I was going to get so damn huge anyway, but putting on more weight than I needed wasn’t a welcome thought. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I’d already gained almost nine pounds just purely from the babies anyway. It was way more than I normally would have ever allowed if I weren’t pregnant and I knew it would take some getting used to mentally.

“Okay, honey. Measurement, and then we can get started looking at these babies. Just lift your shirt for me.”

I did as she asked, watching down over my bare, stretching skin while Melissa gently pressed and felt around the swollenness. I could feel Theo’s mood start to turn, his heartbeat quickening while the doctor’s fingers touched me, touched our babies, but he kept himself still and silent in the waiting chair behind me.

“You’re carrying quite low.” Melissa noted while she felt lower, her fingers pressing in upon the babies as she followed the fullness down. “I can feel them already, we’ve got a sac right here.”

My eyes darted down to where her fingers were as I felt it internally, the press of my insides to the little body beneath. She was touching baby A, and I wasn’t surprised. He was always up at the surface, always waiting to be the first one to feel whenever Theo or I gave a rub or pat to my belly.

He stayed in his spot to let Melissa feel him, only shifting and tumbling slightly when she pushed upon certain places to urge him to move.

“This is your biggest one?” She prompted, and I nodded. “I can tell. He or she is definitely not shy; their movement is easy to feel.” She felt around on my left, her fingers digging a little deeper to try find baby B. “This one, not so much. Do you feel it usually?”

I looked to Theo, my heart fluttering to see the expression of pride and longing on his face. He was getting jealous. He wanted to be the one touching the babies – _I_ wanted him to be the one touching them.  

“They’re a little shy but they usually come up to give a small nudge when we talk to them.” I explained while she finally located the second sac. I felt it strain under my skin, felt the discomfort spread across my belly while the fullness inside me was disturbed. “Careful, that doesn’t feel so good.”

She seemed to appreciate the communication, her hands moving away from my belly altogether upon learning of my discomfort.

“Sorry, sweetheart. That one was just a little bit deeper but it’s not an issue. We’ll pick them up on the ultrasound. Arms at your sides for me.”

The measuring tape was brought around my back, settled evenly around me before being brought together upon the fullest point of my belly, right below my navel.

“One hundred and four centimetres, which is…” She looked to the underside of the tape. “Forty-one inches. You’ve got a fast-growing pair on your hands.”

Forty-one inches? _Jesus._

“So they’re not eighteen weeks?” I asked unsurely while she measured from my sternum to my pubic bone.

“I won’t know for sure until I measure them on the ultrasound, but you’re definitely looking a bit bigger. With some people that can just be due to the weight gain, but you’re all baby in there. That stretch in your skin is firm and full.”

I looked to Theo once more, our eyes meeting in the dim light of the room. I knew what we were both thinking: _what’s the bet they’re twenty weeks?_

I didn’t even want to think about it.

“All right, on the bed.” Melissa finally told me. “Let’s look at them.”

I followed the instructions eagerly, my eyes threatening to flutter shut when Theo circled his hands over my sides as I got to return to him.

This time he remained in the seat beside the bed when I laid down on my back, leaning on his elbows beside me and running excited fingers over the curve of my belly while Melissa set up the machine. I could hear our heartbeats clearly in the air around us, pounding with eager anticipation.

Scott sat on the bed at my knees, a wide grin over his face in his own excitement.

We were all just so keen, so ready to finally find out.

“Do you have any ideas about the genders?” Melissa asked, pressing a few more buttons before warning me, “Cold gel.” and depositing the usual chilling blue lump onto my skin.

“We’re positive baby A is a boy.” Theo told her immediately with the sweetest smile in my direction. “No doubt about it. But baby B is a little difficult, we’re unsure.”

“It is rather shy,” She nodded, bringing the transducer down and spreading the gel over the entirety of my lower belly. “I’ll just check their heartbeats before I do anything, and after I’ll see if they can move into the right positions to see the sex.”

Theo and I nodded, waiting patiently while she pressed down and caught sight of both the babies on the screen. This time I felt absolutely no negative emotions being on the bed under a transducer. I was calm and comfortable, and it was the biggest step forward from last time.

Theo’s hands held one of mine, his fingers stroking up and down upon my own while we both stared at the two seemingly-fully developed babies on the screen.

“Woah.”

It was incredible, they looked like real humans this time. Their heads were a little big still and their hands and feet were quite small, but everything was in its place. They had _faces_ , with ears and noses and eyes and mouths and _christ,_ they were so damn beautiful.

Baby A was obvious on the screen, just that bit bigger than baby B and squirming around inside his sac. I could feel him myself like small flutters low in my belly and Theo and I laughed softly just watching him.

“They’re gorgeous.” He whispered, unable to help leaning down to nuzzle into my temple affectionately before dropping a kiss to my skin. “So fucking gorgeous.”

I could hear the appreciation in his words, secret and just for me while he thanked me for giving him these two little lives. I nuzzled back against him, closing my eyes and letting the happiness blossom inside my chest for the life we were building together.

It didn’t help the oncoming tears when a heartbeat filled the room around us, quick and strong and much louder than I remembered from last time. It wasn’t a tiny _swish_ anymore, but rather a firm _swoosh._ It sounded deeper and fiercer and it made the stupid tears pool before leaking from the corners of my eyes.

“This is your little one,” Melissa told us with a smile. “They’re perfect, that heartbeat is really strong.”

I was surprised to learn it was baby B, pride just filling me up just to hear how strong his or her heartbeat was. They were little and gentle but they were so alive, so tough.

“Shit.” I whispered, squeezing my eyes shut and cooperating when a kiss was pressed emphatically and passionately to my lips.

Theo smelt so proud, so goddamn happy and emotional and he was pouring it into me through his lips. A supportive hand on my knee told me Scott felt it all too, his scent mixing in with ours to create something so confident and optimistic.

A second swooshing sound added to the one in our ears, almost identical and just slightly louder than the first.

Baby A was aflutter inside me and the elevation of his heartbeat relayed his excitement, pumping strong and clear in our ears and almost in time with baby B’s. The tears turned into a stream and I held onto my mate, unable to do anything but cry and listen while our babies’ hearts sounded in my ears.

“That’s incredible.” My alpha breathed from my knees. His thumb rubbed upon my kneecap in a constant, supportive, grounding stroke. “They’re doing so well.”

Melissa nodded.   
“They are. These are honestly the healthiest set of twins I’ve ever scanned, those heartbeats are optimal and the bloodflow I’m seeing is phenomenal. They’re essentially perfect.”

“I expected nothing less from Li.” Theo told her, flattering me with the cheesy compliment to my ‘perfection.’ “He’s amazing.”

I shook my head against his throat, wanting to shove at him for being so sappy but unable to move past the total love and attraction I felt for him. I was the one growing the babies and I knew they were this healthy, but it still hit me how damn incredible this was – how incredible Theo and I were. We were the ones who _made_ this.

But the emotions spilled overboard, bubbling up tenfold when Melissa dropped it on us.

“Are you ready to find out their genders?”

My heart exploded, as did Theo’s and Scott’s and I lifted my head to nod enthusiastically.

“ _Yes.”_ I sniffled, wiping at my tears. “Fuck yes.”

Low laughs of agreement hummed around me and Theo squeezed at my fingers.

“So ready.”

“Okay, how about we inspect our biggest.” Melissa moved the transducer to my right and I almost felt my fingers trembling in Theo’s. “We're in a good position. The placenta is in a posterior position, which means it’s on the back of the uterus. So it’s facing your back.”

“Is that good or bad?”

“It’s good, as long as it’s not low-lying everything should be fine. Low-lying placentas cover your cervix, which can cause a lot of complications during birth but baby A seems perfectly fine, very low risk of the placenta moving further downward.”

_Thank god._

We all watched upon the screen as Melissa moved the transducer further down on my belly, right beside my hipbone to press in underneath baby A. He squirmed and wriggled a bit at the contact, but Melissa was able to see what she needed to see and very clearly.

The smile spread across her face and she looked to us, glancing over all of our expectant expressions before finally telling us.

“You’re right. He’s most definitely a boy.”

It ran through us all, the happiness filling the room and leaving our mouths in euphoric laughs as we learnt the first gender. Theo’s smile almost reached from one ear to the other and he leant in to press the most enthusiastic kiss to my lips.

“I told you.” He laughed with happiness. “I fucking told you, there was no chance he was a girl. We knew it, Li.”

“God, I’m going to pass out.” I moaned, lifting a hand to my forehead to stop the crazy hum of adrenaline from spinning me out. “My heart is racing so damn fast.”

“Just take a few breaths.” He told me, stroking my hair back while Scott’s hand squeezed my knee. “Don’t want you missing the second gender reveal, do we?”

I rolled my eyes at him, lifting a hand to hold him around the back of his neck while we watched upon the screen once more. Melissa quickly measured baby A before moving across to baby B, and that was when the nervous flutters started.

“Holy shit.” I muttered, looking to the ceiling to settle myself. “Help me.”

Theo laughed at me, his fingers working more encouragingly upon my hairline while his other hand took my own and he pressed several kisses to my cheek.

“Just breathe, it’s going to be all right.”

“Remember this is a good thing.” Scott reminded me. “None of this is going to turn sour; you’re safe and the babies are super healthy.”

I soaked their words up, finding the truth to them and waiting until my heartbeat calmed down before nodding to Melissa.

“Okay. I’m ready.”

She gave us an amused smile.

“You sure?” She confirmed, looking between the three of us. “I’m not going to have any passed-out kids on my hands?”

We all shook our heads  _nope_ and she got to work, pressing the transducer slightly deeper to nudge our littlest baby into shifting around for her. I felt the slow tumble and watched on the screen while they rolled, catching sight of something but not even sure I knew what I was looking at.

Melissa did, however, and she followed it while the baby kept turning.

My heart was in my mouth when she finally looked to us.

 _Tick, tick, tick, tick_ came from the clock on the wall and I was about to scream for the suspense to end before the words left her mouth proudly.

“You’re having two boys. Congratulations.”

_Fuck._

_Oh my fucking fuck, I’m going to explode._

“Two boys?” I repeated breathlessly, more tears welling when the low, ' _shit'_ left Theo’s lips beside me. “Are you serious?”

Melissa nodded.   
“Two very healthy boys.”

“ _Fuck._ ” I whispered, rolling into Theo to wrap my arms around him and muffle the sob that left my throat in happiness. “ _Theo. Fuck.”_

“I know.” He murmured back, his voice just on the edge of trembling while the news flooded through us. “Two _boys_ , Li. _God,_ they’re going to be perfect.”

I nodded into him, the largest surge of incredulity powering its way through every vein in my body.

It was two boys. We were having two boys and it was going to be beautiful, so amazing. I could _see_ us with them, I could see us holding them and feeding them and changing their diapers and bathing them and putting them to sleep. I could see the way we’d dress them and the colour of their eyes in the morning sunlight. I could see the life we were going to have with them and it overwhelmed me in all the best ways possible.

I was also so goddamn relieved because, although I never really realised it, the thought had always been hidden in the back of my mind that we wouldn’t even really know what to _do_ with a girl. We were familiar with males, and the thought of trying to raise a girl into teenagehood, especially trying to give her _the talk_ just seemed more like a woman’s area of expertise. Those kinds of hormones would attack us and I knew we wouldn’t be prepared for it, especially as first time parents.

Boys were what we knew and it was going to be so perfect.

Theo felt it too. His skin was hot against mine and I felt the few tears he let slip down his cheeks, his entire being exploding with mine while we saw our futures together. He almost shook but wouldn’t let himself; he refused to stop being the firm support that I needed. Because if he broke down, I definitely would too.

And all of it wasn’t even worrying because this was _happy._ These were happy tears and happy _fuck_ ’s and _shit_ ’s because the two little lives inside me had just become so much more real, so much more _us._ I had two boys in my belly and now we were going to be able to do their room and get them proper clothes and find _names_ to call them by.

“I love you.” I sniffled into his shoulder. “ _I love you._ ”

“I love you, too.” He sniffled back. “God, I love you so fucking much.”

The hand on my knee gave a nudge and I lifted my head, sitting up to wrap my arms around Scott for the biggest, cosiest hug. My face buried into his shoulder.

“I’m so, so proud of you guys.” He told me tenderly. “You’re going to be amazing together. Those babies will be incredible.” 

“Thanks, Scott.” I smiled thickly, wiping my tears on his shirt.

Our hug broke off and Melissa pulled me to lean into her side, my head on her stomach while she brushed my hair back in the most motherly way I’d ever felt.

Scott stood from the bed and so did Theo, and my mate actually let our alpha _hug_ him. Scott pulled him in and held the back of his neck, sinking his fingers into his hairline and holding him close to whisper words of congratulations and encouragement into his ear. It was one of the sweetest moments I’d ever experienced in my life. All of it, right there and then.

The motherly hand brushing my hair back and the softness of Melissa’s belly under my head, the smell of her clothes and the coo of her voice.

The bond that shone between the two most important men in my world, the sight of them clinging to each other in happiness.

All of it.

It was one of the best things I’d ever felt and it was all happening because of the babies. The two little Raekens inside me – and _god,_ it felt so fucking good to think that. What I had in that room was a _family_ , a proper one with nothing but love and support.

It was so overwhelmingly _wholesome._

_~~Find out the genders.~~ _ ~~~~

The rest of the scan eventually went ahead, once we had all stopped crying and swearing to ourselves. It passed by in one blur of information and excitement, the words swirling around and around in my head that we were having boys.

The placentas were both in excellent positions and the risk of either of them lowering to cover my cervix was as low as possible, which just added another notch onto my level of happiness. Their hearts were perfect and so were the rest of their organs. They both had ten fingers and ten toes and everything was as it was supposed to be. 

After measuring them, we found out that they hadn’t grown as much as we originally thought. They were two days shy of being nineteen weeks. Their organs were fully developed, they were around eight inches long and weighed half a pound each. Melissa said they were almost the size of mangoes.

Their bronchioles were starting to develop, which meant that their respiratory system had begun to form. Melissa explained that they would now be able to respond to _light_ as well as our voices and other sounds and now their central nervous systems were starting to activate.

And I was warned that my hipbones were due to start _widening_ , which meant discomfort. Around now was when apparently my posture would start to change; I’d lean back to balance the extra weight of the babies and my walk might alter, too, but I already knew I’d developed an annoying kind of waddle when I was on my feet for too long. It was impossible to miss the way Theo adored it. I could smell it on him every time.

His hand remained glued to mine while the ultrasound was finished up and he even cleaned the gel off my belly when it was all done. He kept me close by his side when I sat up and Scott sat on my other side, the two of them encasing me in a protective, proud little bubble of mate and alpha.

I smiled and let them, admitting to myself that it felt really good to be so safe.

“Now usually there are things we should have organised before you’re even this far along,” Melissa informed me, writing a few more things down onto her clipboard before sitting down with us. “For example, booking you into the hospital for your due date.”

_Oh._

Melissa watched Theo and I before asking slowly,

“Is the birth something you’ve thought about yet?”

We both shook our heads a very shocked _no._ We’d been so focused on getting used to the fact that the babies were even in there, it had totally slipped our minds to think about how they were actually going to come out.

My eyes widened and I realised very quickly, with a sick feeling of nervousness in my gut, that they only really had one way out of me. And that was anally.

I had no fucking idea how I was going to manage or if it was even an _option_ , if it was safe. I doubted a single doctor in the whole of California had ever encountered someone like me and panic started rising to think that maybe I would be alone with it. I would have to figure it out myself and no one would know how to help me.

“ _No…”_ I whispered, my shoulders tensing as I stood from the bed between Scott and Theo. I started to pace. “ _Nononono…”_

“Li.” Theo followed me, pulled me into his chest and rubbed firmly up and down on my back to quell the quickly approaching anxiety attack. “It’s all going to be okay, we’ll figure it out. We’ve got Melissa.”

“The thing is,” Melissa interjected uncertainly. “I’m not a midwife. I don’t have the right expertise and it might be better if someone more experienced saw you-”

“ _No.”_ I shook my head immediately. “I’m not seeing anyone else, _no._ I don’t care if you’re not qualified, I trust you.”

“It isn’t that simple, sweetheart.”

“Yes it _is,_ I _want you to be my doctor.”_

“Take deep breaths, baby.” My mate soothed me, bringing my face up to meet my eyes. “Deep breaths. Don’t let the panic get to you.”

I sighed, shaking my head and letting myself slump against him in despair.

“It’s one thing after another.” I whined to him. “There’s always something to worry us and it never ends.”

“I know.” He murmured, holding me close. “But we get through it, we always do. We always figure it out, and we _will_ figure this out.”

I closed my eyes against his chest and breathed him in, kept breathing him in until he sucked out all the panic from my body. He calmed me down through our bond and almost sedated me with how relaxed I grew.

He knew exactly how I felt and what I feared. He basically heard my thoughts. So he supported me like he always did, letting Scott’s hands join his in rubbing upon my back, and he dealt with the situation for me.

“Is there any way you can do this?” He asked Scott’s Mom softly. “Please. You’re the only person he’ll trust to do this with him. I know you’re not qualified, but neither is anyone else for something like this.”

Scott joined in.

“Please, Mom. We can do research and I’m positive that Deaton can help us find where to look. I’m sure if the Burnetts could find out about the trueblood legend, we definitely can. We can find out how something like this is going to work when it comes to the birth. _Please,_ Mom, you can’t just give up on them.”

I felt her hesitancy in the room around us, swirling and threatening to push past the protective bubble Theo had created around me. He kept it strong, however, not letting the uncertainty cause more panic inside my veins. He kept me settled.

Finally, Melissa took a breath.   
“Okay.”

I looked up at last, turning my head on Theo’s chest to find her.

“You’ll help us?”

She nodded, moving in to smooth a hand over my forehead before dropping a kiss to my skin.

“I’ll be right with you.” She agreed. “It’ll be tricky but I think I can manage to get past the authorities on it.”

I leaned into her touch, gratitude starting to flood through me like the antidote to my worries.

“ _Thank you.”_

The brown eyes smiled at me before she led us to the computer in the corner of the room.

“I can book you in for all your future scans now.” She explained, logging into the system and bringing up an extravagant page filled with hundreds of blocks for appointments. “You’ll need one every month until the babies come if we’re going to keep a close eye on them. I’ll put you on weekends so school doesn’t get interrupted. The only thing that we can’t be sure of is the due date; those babies grow whenever they like and for all we know they could come between April and July.”

“What if I don’t come to the hospital? What if we just do it at home?”

Melissa was unsure immediately.

“Sweetheart, we need to have all the equipment and facilities available. Especially for a pregnancy as rare as this. If delivering them naturally isn’t possible, you’ll need a caesarean section.”

I swallowed, shaking my head faintly at the idea with a million _no’s_ screaming through my head. Theo didn’t like the idea either, his arms stiffening around me just to hear the term.

“I don’t want to be cut open.”

“We might have to do it if it’s the only way to get the babies out, but it’s a long way off yet. After we do our research, we might find that you’ll be perfectly capable of delivering them naturally. There’s no need to panic yourself over it.”

I sighed, digging my head into Theo’s chest and forcing myself to stay calm.

“So as a rough estimate, when do you think the babies will come?” He asked for me.

“Well… he’s two entire months ahead. If they slow down and grow normally for the rest of the pregnancy, he’ll hit thirty-seven weeks in early May. Thirty-seven is considered full term for twins, but he may carry them until forty. They seem content in there.”

“So late May to early June.” Scott mused. “Can you keep a room open for him until we can be sure?”

She nodded, clicking a few times before typing.

“I will most definitely try. I’ll do my best to make sure the room is held for you from mid-April, just in case they decide to come much earlier than expected.”

“Thank you.” I whispered, relief starting to ease my limbs up. “For everything.”

Melissa smiled softly, finalising the entry and hitting enter. My name was bold and visible in a box on the screen.

“I’m going to try my best to get you through this.” She reassured me with one of her confident nods. She stroked at my hairline again. “I promise.”

The room fell quiet and I let myself fall against Theo and Scott in a moment of relief.

The panic passed, and although I still had no idea how I was actually going to manage giving birth, I knew that I’d have everyone I needed right by my side. Everything was booked in and the babies were fine. _I_ was fine.

We finally knew their genders and we had a lot to start thinking about, but it was just extra stuff that I knew I could add onto my list. I reminded myself of what Scott and Theo always told me: we had _time._ Everything would happen when I was ready and this was just the smallest of hiccups in the road.

The two pairs of hands rubbing against my back remained as a constant comforter.

“I also assume you wouldn’t be interested in birthing classes.” Melissa noted, earning low laughs from each of us.

“It won’t exactly help if I’m not even going to have a normal birth.”

She smiled.

“That’s very true. The most you can do to prepare yourself is make sure you’re going walking regularly. It keeps you moving and helps to strengthen your pelvic muscles in its own way.”

We took in the advice. I was willing to do some waddling if it meant helping me and the babies in the future.

“Besides that, I think we’re done here. I’ll get in contact with Alan and keep you updated on what we find. In the meantime I don’t want any of you worrying about anything. It doesn’t help to stress and I just know that things will work out fine.” Theo and I received positive, warm smiles. “I’m going to make sure of it.”

She was the most incredible woman in the world.

I wasn’t even her son or relative, but she was going to take care of me like one.

We left the hospital with Scott, heading out to get some food to satisfy the raging hunger in my belly. It was almost lunch time and I hadn’t eaten a thing – besides, I knew I was going to have to eat a lot more if I was going to keep up with the babies. I’d gain weight if it meant they would come out stronger.

I sent a group message to Mason, Corey and Malia as they requested, mulling over the events of the morning while I pressed send to tell them that Corey had been right and I had two boys in my belly.

I supposed I could cross off ' _Find out due dates'_ from my list now, too. We’d narrowed it down to one month of possibilities and something told me that was as close as we were going to get until the time came much closer. So if the babies stayed inside me and behaved themselves, I still had five months left. It was more comforting than I thought it would be.

_Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding._

I looked down to my phone, smiling and showing Scott and Theo when the messages started coming through.

 _Mason:_ _OH MY GOD ASDFGUEIFBRG YES! Two boys!_  
          : I thought there would be at least one girl but YESSSS   
          : Holy shit I think I peed myself  
          : I honestly think I did  
          : omg I’m scared ew  
          : But seriously, LIUUUM! YES! 

_Corey:_ _Knew I was right ;) Just had that feeling._  
         : So coooool! Congrats Li!   
         : What was that, Malia? Got nothing to say? 

_ Malia: _ _Oh, please. Check your high horse.  
        : Just because I was wrong doesn’t mean I’ m not still super excited. Congratulations, guys! Expect a baby outfit or two on New Year’s. _

_Mason:_ _Yes, totally!_  
          : Like, ten baby outfits!   
          : Well maybe not ten cause I don’t have that much money but STILL! There are boys to be spoilt! 

_ Corey: _ _Definitely. So happy for you guys (:_

Theo, Scott and I laughed at the rambling and banter.

“They’re hilarious.” Scott commented across from us.

Theo shrugged, tugging me closer on the booth and nuzzling into my throat to press the warmest of kisses to my skin.

“They’re the biggest bunch of weirdos. But they’ve got your back.”

I smiled, leaning into him and enjoying the pure happiness that washed over me while I finally came to terms with everything again. My life was still the same as it had been this morning before the hospital appointment and I was still super excited about the twins. The only thing that had changed was our knowledge.

My mouth watered when our food finally came and I dug into the chicken Caesar salad in front of me while I typed out a response to my friends.

 _Liam:_ _You guys make me laugh. Thank you!_  
       : Found out they’re at 18 wks and 5 days. They’ll be due between late May and early June.   
       : Just a little nervous but y’know. 

_ Malia: _ _You’ll have Geminis! No need to be nervous Liam, everything will go perfectly!_

_ Corey: _ _For once, I actually agree with this bitch ^_

_ Mason: _ _Touché. You’ll smash those labour pains Li!  
          : I bet you’ll barely feel them!  _

_ Malia: _ _Uh, yes. He will. They’ll be excruciating.  
        : But he’s seriously the strongest person I know – you’ll be totally fine, Liam. Don’t listen to this idiot ♥_

_ Mason: _ _EXCUSE ME?  
          : asdfghjkl this kind of treatment is unacceptable _

“Is it possible to smack him through the phone?” Theo murmured around a mouthful of stolen lettuce from my salad. “Cause I wanna.”

I nudged at him, grinning at the encouragement that came vibrating from my phone.

_ Liam: _ _Thanks guys. I hope you’re right, really._

_ Mason: _ _When are we wrong?_

_ Corey: _ _When it comes to guessing babies’ genders, clearly ;)_

_ Malia: _ _Don’t you fucking start._

_ Mason: _ _Yeah babe, please don’t start. Let us learn from our mistakes x_

_ Liam: _ _You guys are ridiculous :’)  
       : I’m turning my notifications off now. I’ll see you in three days? _

_ Malia: _ _See you New Year’s!_

_ Corey: _ _Definitely. See you New Year’s, Liam!_

_ Mason: _ _Love you, wolfy! xxx_

_ Liam: _ _Love you xxx_

The simplicity that I felt after hearing my friends tell me I was going to be just fine spread through me, creating a new kind of confidence inside me for the future. Sure it was going to be a little stressful and a _lot_ painful but if it was what I had to do to bring our babies into the world, I would do it. No questions asked.

I felt a sort of finality when I said goodbye to my friends. It was like I was starting a whole new chapter of this journey and I was comforted by the thought that I was going into it with a positive mindset and the best forms of support anyone could ever have.

I tapped over the screen with a soft smile and let the new chapter start on its own.

  
_Liam has left the conversation._


	27. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this one's gonna be worth the wait. 22.7k words, woops.

“I can’t do it.”

“Yes, you can. Just concentrate.”

“No, I _can’t._ There’s a car coming.”

“They can _wait_. Put it in reverse, Liam.”

I sighed sharply, just for Theo. Just to indicate how frustrated he was making me.

I swallowed and did as he said, ignoring the approaching car from behind us and putting the truck into reverse. I tried to remember what we’d practiced in the street at home in front of our apartment, turning to look over my shoulder and slowly letting the clutch out.

“Keep going until you’re parallel with their back passenger window, and then hook it.”

“I _remember._ ” I huffed.                          

My mate sat back in the seat beside me, staring at me for a long moment while I inched the truck backwards anxiously. He only let my irritation last a few seconds longer before putting a hand to my thigh and sucking all the poison out of me.

“Stop stressing. There’s nothing to stress about.” His voice was softer as he directed me once more. “Turn the wheel til it locks. Take it easy.”

I took a deep breath and complied. I inched us back slowly, watching while the back of the truck started slotting into place behind the poor black Toyota we’d decided to practice on. The car behind us drove around me, continuing up the road and relieving the pressure from my chest to get this _done_ before they grew impatient.

I never knew parking could be so goddamn nerve-wracking.

“You’re doing fine, baby.” Theo knew every single thing I was thinking; he always did. The hand on my thigh gave a rub. “Take your time. Before the rear hits the gutter, turn the wheel back the other way.”

Slowly but surely, I managed to manoeuvre my mate’s ridiculously oversized truck against the gutter behind the black Toyota. I even remembered to leave adequate distance between our bumpers before Theo opened his door to check my distance from the curb.

“ _Yes!_ ” He celebrated in a low hiss of breath, turning to pull me into a hug by the back of my neck. “Perfect. You did perfect.”

I huffed in relief into his jumper, wrapping my arms around him against the seat while the tension left my body to make way for a wave of accomplishment. If I could do that in a truck, I could definitely manage to do it in a tiny little instructor’s car for the driving test.

“Why do manoeuvres have to be compulsory?” I muttered in complaint, sagging against my boyfriend. “Why can’t we just _drive?_ ”

A low laugh vibrated from his chest to mine and I could hear the way it adored me. I wanted to smack him.

“Because you _need_ them to drive. You gotta know how to park, do u-turns, straight reverse, three-point-turns…”

“You’re not _helping._ ”

“It gets _easier,_ baby.” He comforted me, leaning back to hold my jaw in his hands. “It becomes second nature soon enough. I promise.”

I shut my eyes, dropping my forehead against his while his fingers stroked at the corners of my mouth. I felt exhausted, even though it was only one o’clock in the afternoon.

I needed a nap after all that driving and reversing and trying not to cause a collision in the traffic circle. It all made me wish that my parents had taught me at least a little of this stuff, and sooner. Going back to basics and having to learn manoeuvres felt like starting all over again. It was discouraging.

“No one even parallel parks these days, though.” I argued softly, nudging my nose against the side of Theo’s. “You literally see no one do it.”

He pressed a slow kiss to my lips, sucking my lower in between his and tasting me with his tongue. I almost fell right into him, the kiss sending small tingles down my spine and into the babies.

He left me slightly breathless before killing me with a stunning smile.

“It’s one of those things. Like algebra; you learn it to pass but you’ll likely never use it again in your life.” He made me laugh a little. “Don’t worry. You’ll never have to parallel park again after the test if you don’t want to.”

“Good.” I grunted, nudging closer for another one of those kisses. “Cause I won’t.”

He obliged, unclicking my seatbelt and drawing me over his lap on the seat to hold me all the way around, pulling our bodies close and stroking a slow hand down over the swell of my belly while he sucked and bit and teased at my lips.

It sent the blood pooling to my dick at once, just the feel of him and the smell of his skin and the softness of his hair in my fingers resonating so compatibly with my own body that it sent me dizzy.

He knew it, too, not relenting in his attack to my mouth and nerve-endings until I was just this side of breathless. He didn’t want me passing out – just _falling_ for him. And I did, so fucking hard.

He broke away, peppering my cheekbones and temples with soft pecks, creating a trail of tickles and tingles from the stubble on his jaw in his wake.

It looked good on him, a little facial hair, put a little extra definition to his jawline and scratched in all the right ways against my skin when he held me close and ate me up in his usual attack of kisses. It even felt good on my belly when he kissed and spoke to the babies.

I smiled under his attentions, waiting until the last press of his lips to my skin before opening my eyes to him.

“Love you.” I murmured slowly, lazily.

“Love you.” He smiled back at me and nosed at my cheek before giving my belly another rub. “You hungry? We can go get a huge lunch, feed these boys.”

It had only been a day since finding out that we were having two boys but to hear it still sent my heart racing with excitement and awe. I almost couldn’t deal with how amazing it was, looking down over the swollenness below Theo’s hand and finding myself unable to stop smiling.

“Guess I’ll need to.” I supposed, leaning in for one more kiss before extricating myself from his limbs and shifting back behind the wheel of the truck. “Can we get steak? I feel like steak.”

He grinned before deciding to challenge me.

“Only if you complete another parallel park without me saying anything.”

I rolled my eyes at his persistence, shifting into first and shoulder checking before pulling back out into the road and finding another car to park behind. I officially hated parallel parking, but if it was for a rare-cooked piece of steak, I would do it.

 

Said steak turned out to be amazing. The waitress and a few patrons around us definitely stared in disgust not only at my belly, but also at the way my meat bled upon the plate - but I couldn’t have cared less. I devoured its juiciness almost ravenously, the two little carnivores inside my belly sending the craving through my veins and torturing me with it until I was full and stretching my t-shirt.

I still found it a little revolting that I was craving meat and blood like this, but I assumed it was a pregnant wolf thing.

Theo drove us home and I took a well-deserved nap to recover from the driving lesson and my food coma, waking up hungry again four hours later.

It was ridiculous. At the start of my eighteenth week I hadn’t really known what Theo’s website had been going on about concerning the super hungriness, but now it was full overload. My metabolism ate everything up, no matter what I ate or how much, and within a few hours I was hungry again.

My belly was constantly swollen – well, even _more_ swollen – from food, and soon we were beginning to wonder if it was actually still a food baby or if the extra meals were aiding another growth spurt.

When we woke up the next morning and it still hadn’t gone down, we knew. The babies were growing.

The swelling had officially surpassed my belly button. The rise began just below my sternum and my navel had _added_ to the fullest part of the swollenness, almost completely flat with the stretch of my skin. My whole belly from my navel down to my pubic bone was one round, firm bulge. I was well and truly _pregnant._

And surprisingly… it felt _good._

The weight and the stretch and the fullness had all become things I’d grown fond of. I didn’t look in the mirror and worry over the incredible swelling. Instead I touched it, felt it. Ran my fingertips over it and smiled when the waves started rippling under my hands as the babies came up to say hello.

The commotion only grew more frantic and excited when Theo knelt to kiss them, blocking my view of myself from the mirror and smothering my belly with kisses and murmurs. I didn’t even mind, because _this_ view was so much better.

And the intensity only grew wilder when the kisses trailed down, following the dark line of hair from my navel to the waistline of my underwear and _oh._

“Jesus.” I uttered, gasping when he whipped the underwear down my thighs in one quick snap of elastic. My cock bounced out with the gravity and I immediately had to grip at his hair when he started tonguing at the head. “ _Shit,_ you can’t do that when I’m standing up! My damn legs are going to give out.”

All I received was a smirk before he wrapped an arm around my thighs, his other arm sliding between my legs and _up,_ between my ass cheeks for a palm to flatten protectively over my lower back.

“I’ve got you.” He hummed, pressing a kiss to the crown of my belly before ducking back down and swallowing me whole.

And he wasn’t lying. He had me.

He held me up, on my feet until I exploded down his throat. The pleased hum that drew up from his chest as he swallowed only sent more sharp electricity up my spine, urging more cum to bubble up and assault his tongue with another load that I’d been unaware I was capable of spilling.

He brought me to my knees in the best way possible, giving me the opportunity to knock him down and give him hell in the very same way.

I got the upper hand when I trapped his hips to the floor under my hands, holding my breath to swallow and moan around his thickness over and over again without even surfacing once. I counted only twenty seconds before the hot, thick explosion spurted and poured down into my belly, and smiled as much as I could with a mouth and throat full of him.

He glared down at me, shaking his head and shoving me off while I laughed and wiped at the corner of my lip.

“Twenty seconds.” I triumphed, earning a muttered _fuck you_ while he slouched his way into the bathroom. “ _Love you!”_

So we started December 30th with orgasms.

I made myself a huge breakfast of granola, berries and yoghurt before eating waffles and downing a glass of juice with my prenatals. I had a fair laugh at the fucked up meme Mason texted to me before settling down under my blanket on the sofa and starting a rough draft for my next written assessment for school.

I decided I’d try to get World History out of the way. As much as I loved the subject, the essays were hard. There were particular ways in which the teachers wanted them structured, with hypotheses and topic sentences and research journals with at least twelve damn source references. It was a mess of effort and if I could get it out of the way, the last two papers for Health and Biology would be a total breeze.

I sat there typing, writing, scribbling out and researching until midday, completely comfortable and warm while I listened absently to the sounds of Theo as he did laundry and vacuumed.

I secretly loved how damn domestic he actually was, and I also had the inkling that he was keeping busy to give himself time to sulk over the mere twenty seconds he lasted down my throat.

I was fine with the distance, the babies resting happily inside my belly while he remained on the other side of the house. It was like our bond wasn’t panicking because we were both _home_. We could smell and hear each other and as long as we weren’t actually mad at each other, everything was absolutely fine.

It was after I’d made myself three chicken and mayo sandwiches and was sitting back down to continue writing my essay when he finally made an appearance.

He lifted my feet up to rest on the coffee table so he could vacuum around me while I smiled softly and typed. The attraction and the energy between us was so strong, even though neither of us even made eye contact or said anything, and soon he started to smile too. Just being in the same room, acting like normal couples did was such a comfortable feeling, so homey.

It was perfect, at least until he took the head off the vacuum and stuck the hose to my dick through my sweatpants.

My laptop went flying and I kicked and shoved at him to dislodge the vacuum, crying out and holding a cushion over the attacked area when he finally stepped back.

He was doubled over in laughter, shutting off the vacuum and saving my laptop before dropping onto the sofa beside me and pulling me into his chest adoringly.

“C’mon, you had it coming.” He cooed, the leftover laughs still guffawing from his chest. I pouted. “ _Baby._ You don’t get the upper hand over someone like me and expect to get away with it.”

He was totally right and I knew it, the pout giving way to an amused smile while we laughed together. He removed the cushion and rubbed at my junk soothingly before I swatted him away lazily, leaning forward as much as I could around the babies to retrieve my laptop and sinking against him to continue with my essay.

A kiss or two sucked against my neck, a tongue tickling over my mating bite before his arms wrapped around me and he settled, watching over my shoulder while I typed.

“How’s it coming?”

I nodded in response to the gentle murmur, trying not to shiver when five fingers started swaying under my shirt.

“Halfway through. I think.” I heaved the softest of sighs. “Anything about the Arab-Israeli Conflict you know that I can add?”

A laugh puffed from his nose.

“Yeah. That it’s _over._ ”

I huffed a _pff_ , shaking my head and tilting it back upon his shoulder.

“Mm. Still gotta study it, it’s _history._ ”

We fell quiet, my fingers typing exactly five more words before the hand under my shirt started tickling again.

“How do you feel? Is there any pain in your hipbones? Any stretching?”

I smiled at his level of care. He’d literally soaked in every word Melissa had told us at the appointment on Thursday and had been super attentive in looking out for the signs that they were happening.

I nuzzled against the side of his head.

“I feel really good. No pain at all.”

I felt his cheek lift against mine with a soft smile.

“Thank god.” His hand circled over my belly, lowering to the waist of my sweatpants to press and feel at the firmness. “Have they been moving?”

“Nope, they’ve been really quiet today-“

_Beeeeep._

I paused when the car horn sounded from the street below, saving my work on the laptop and waiting in the silence with Theo until it came again.

_Beeeeep._

“Do you think it’s for us?”

I shook my head faintly.  
“I have no idea. What if it’s Stiles again?”

I felt the laughter in my mate’s chest as he was reminded of Christmas morning, Stiles turning up in the Santa suit and holding the horn of his Jeep until we came down.

“Don’t know what he’d have to be beeping for.”

_Beeeeep!_

I shuffled to my feet, Theo’s hand following my waist up and never leaving it once while we both padded through to the kitchen window to look down upon the road.

“Oh… wow.”

It was a delivery truck.

My mouth fell open and soft excitement rushed through me.

“The baby stuff.” I smiled in surprise. “I thought they said three days?”

Theo shrugged, pressing a kiss to my head and opening the front door.

“Came early,” He ran a hand over my hair and walked backwards towards the staircase outside. “Go relax, I’ll handle it.”

I rolled my eyes at him, smiling and leaving the door open while he skipped downstairs to meet the delivery drivers. I took a juice box with me, dropping back down onto the couch as lazily as possible without jostling the babies too much, and started flicking through my phone leisurely.

I scrolled through my Facebook news feed for a while before deciding that the whining bullshit posts of girls in my grade weren’t worth my time.

A delivery guy in a bright yellow uniform appeared in the doorway, wheeling in a large load of boxes strapped to a trolley, and I turned to watch while he looked from the boxes he was delivering and back to me.

He put it together, that I was in a gay relationship with the Chimera who’d met him downstairs and somehow we’d both ordered a bunch of baby furniture. Lucky he couldn’t see the lower half of me behind the back of the sofa or he might’ve hit the road running.

“Uh…” He stared blankly.

I wasn’t even in the mood to politely deal with the judgement. I pulled a Theo, lifting a brow and giving him the most deadpan look I could manage.

“Down the hall. Last room on the right.”

He gave a confused nod before following the directions with haste, watching over his shoulder at me while he wheeled his trolley down the hallway and out of sight.

I rolled my eyes at him and returned to my phone as a second delivery guy made his way in, shooting a quick text to Scott.

 _ Liam: _ _Baby stuff just arrived. Wanna come watch Theo try to put it all together without the instruction sheet?_

A third person walked through the door while the first delivery guy wheeled his way out, except this one wasn’t in bright clothing. The person was carrying a large rectangular box, and I noticed upon looking up that it was Theo.

The box covered his entire torso but the weight didn’t seem to bother him, a bright smile shining over at me while he approached and lowered the box to the floor behind the sofa.

“Car seat.” He indicated to the box, leaning against the back of the sofa to suck a kiss to my lips. “There’s one more downstairs but I’ll let the fat guy bring it up.”

I gave him a pointed look.

“Which fat guy are you referring to? That one, or _this_ one?”

He glared at me warningly, taking my cheeks and pretending to squeeze my head between his hands in frustration. 

“You,” He murmured over my lips. “Are not _fat._ You’re pregnant, and you’re fucking beautiful.”

_Ding._

We ignored my phone for a quick moment, our eyes locking while his brows rose insistently.

“You hear me? You’re beautiful.”

I shrugged, looking downwards to escape the intensity of his gaze.

“Okay.”

The hands on my cheeks tugged, forcing my eyes back up.

“Say you believe me.” – I went to argue, but he repeated himself. – “Say you believe me or I’m not letting you go.”

_Oh my god, you’re persistent._

I sighed and my shoulders surrendered.

“ _Fine,_ I believe you. I’m not fat, I’m beautiful.”

He nodded, pleased.

“Good.” _Kiss... kiss, kiss, kiss._

_Ding._

We both looked down while the second text from Scott came through, and I was finally let go to reach down and open it.

“Texted Scott.” I told him, thumbing open the conversation. “Asked if he wanted to come watch you fail at baby furnishing.”

“Well, that’s _rude.”_ A pair of arms looped around my chest from above and behind, trapping me against the back of the sofa while his head settled beside mine.

 _ Scott: _ _Come on, you gotta have faith in him! I’m sure he’s really good at putting cribs together!_

“See? Scott believes in me.”

 _ Scott: _ _I can come now if you’re not busy?_

I grinned, laughing softly through my nose and typing out a reply.

“He believes in anyone. That’s just the kind of heart he has.”

 _ Liam: _ _Bring me some Chipotle on the way? x_

 _ Scott: _ _Only because you’re pregnant and I’m afraid of what you’ll do if I say no. See you in 15!_

“You’re seriously getting him to grab you a burrito? You just ate like three entire fucking sandwiches.”

I shrugged, lowering a hand to pat at my belly with an innocent expression. I saw the shine of attraction and love in his eyes before I even verbally responded, the smile spreading across his face and connecting with my throat as he pressed a warm kiss to my skin.

“I’m growing two baby _Theo_ s. It’s tiring work.”

A scoff of disbelief cried out into my throat while the delivery guys left, shutting the door behind them with glances of disdain at us on the way.

“ _Two_ baby Theos? No. Baby A is definitely a Liam. He’s stubborn as all fuck,” Another slow kiss pressed to my throat and the arms around my chest gave a cosy squeeze. “And oh-so-loveable.”

_Fucking sap._

I couldn’t help the grin and the eye-roll at his words, my cheeks rising with unrestrainable happiness.

I leant into him and tilted my head back to meet his lips.

“Now you’re talking.” _Kiss, kiss, kiss._ “D’you want help moving this box down the hall?”

A hand reached down from my chest to circle over my belly.

“Absolutely not. If I even catch you trying to lift a damn finger I’ll cuff you to the bedframe and keep you on bedrest until school starts again.”

My eyes rolled again, but this time in good-humoured frustration.

Theo paused after his own words, however, his scent turning sour while his arms hardened around me.

“ _Fuck._ I didn’t even think about that, I’m sorry…”

 _Oh._ The Burnetts. I’d been chained to the bedframe for a month.

I shrugged softly, lifting my hands to rub at his arms.

“Is it weird that I actually forgot?”

His scent altered some, but I could still smell the regret in his limbs. He lowered an apologetic kiss to my cheek.

“Not weird. Good, maybe; means you’ve moved on.”

I turned at the murmured misery in his voice, thumbing at his jawline and touching my nose to his softly.

“Don’t punish yourself. It’s fine, really. It didn’t bother me at all, promise.”

His lips worried before a brow lifted minutely.

“Sure?”

I nodded confidently.  
“Sure.”

He joined our lips, kissing me slow and full in a strong, silent apology. I accepted it with an open mouth, letting his taste in along with his tongue and stroking my fingers through his hair to tell him that it really was alright, I was fine.

We sent our messages back and forth with each kiss, our bodies pressing our own arguments harder and harder against each other before one of us relented, and that ended up being Theo.

He surrendered, finally letting himself accept that I was fine and softening his lips upon mine, leaving a much gentler kiss to signify his defeat.

“It’s okay.” I whispered into his lips, twisting upon the sofa to draw my arms around his neck for a close hug.  

His face buried into my shoulder and he held me, nodding and turning to press a little love to my throat and jawline in tender affection.

It made me smile at how soft he was for me. No one else got this kind of gentleness from him and it made my chest puff up with gratification and pride; it was wholly relieving to be in a relationship where there was absolutely no jealousy or concern over some other person stealing my lover or having experienced his love before me. He and I were each other’s, one hundred and ten percent, and everyone knew it.

I knew he could tell what I was thinking, just by the way his smell altered in my lungs to hint at something proud and satisfied. He felt the same way, completely positive that neither of us would ever even look at another person by _accident_.

We only had eyes for each other and it was incredible, so stable and loyal. Blood bonds did that to a couple, not to mention a crazy-attracted-to-each-other couple like us. Even if we weren’t mated, there was no way the attraction we had for each other could be any stronger.

 _We’re meant to be together_ , that little voice in my head whispered once more.

Our hug lasted for longer than other people would deem normal, the two of us just holding each other and breathing each other’s scents in to satisfy the love-smitten wolves inside our chests.

They were begging for us to be together again, to tangle up under my blanket and have sex until we passed out, but it was barely past midday. I had writing to do – and burrito eating to do - and Theo and Scott were going to start assembling the crib frames in the babies’ room. Sex would be able to wait.

“Can it, though?” My mate read my thoughts, murmuring against my throat in the low tempted tone I recognised when his blood started growing thick with the need for _us._

I nodded on his shoulder.

“It can wait. It has to.”

An unsure moan rasped out from his chest, tickling my eardrums and nerve-endings in all the right ways before I steeled myself with an internal _nope_ and shut it off.

The angle I was twisted at started to pinch inside my belly, causing sharp pains to shoot down into my womb at the elongated rotation to hug my mate over the back of the sofa.

I sucked the breath in through my teeth.

“ _Now_ there’s pain.” I exhaled, letting go of Theo to face the front of the sofa once more and relieve the concerning aches.

His entire body turned protective and he rounded the couch quickly, his eyes hard and worried while he dropped to his knees between my legs and searched my face.

His hands found mine, slipped underneath to let me take his palms to where it hurt while his scent twisted with something fearful.

I drew his hands down over the babies and leaned back against the seat to relax, letting him feel me through our bond to find exactly where the pain was. His behaviour softened when he was sure that the pain was only flitting, only there because I was twisted around for a little too long.

“Gotta start being careful with the way you move.” He murmured, lifting my shirt to let our skins connect while the pain slowly ebbed away. “I was reading that you shouldn’t stretch to reach things in high places, either. The website said the babies could get tangled up in their umbilical cords.”

_Oh wow._

I bit my lip, frowning softly at the new information and trying to remember back the past few months, if I’d done a whole lot of stretching or not. The babies had been fine two days ago when Melissa scanned them, so I was safe.

“So that means no reaching up to get the cereal down from the cupboard.” I mused aloud while my mate’s hands circled and smoothed over the babies. “And no hanging out washing. Do you think I can still wash my hair?”

Theo softened up from his worried demeanour, letting the gentle smile touch his lips.

“Course you can. Just can’t be reaching above your head.”

I took a deep breath and sighed, watching down while his hands rose with the expansion of my belly from my lungs.

“So much shit I can’t do.”

He tilted his head sympathetically, leaning forwards to press a kiss to baby A and a kiss to baby B. He then reached up to hold my chin, drawing me in to press a final kiss to my lips. It was one that lasted, neither of our bodies wanting to relinquish the contact.

“You know I’ll be here.” He told me softly, loyally. “I’ll always be here.”

I held his face, nodding and trying to resist sudden tears at the surge of love and emotion that spread up to my heart at his words.

Our noses nudged against each other in slow eskimo kisses. _He’s so beautiful._

“I know.” I whispered.

He kissed me again, his hips nudging between my legs while he leant up from his knees to get closer, to wrap his arms right around my back and hold me to him. I twined those legs around his waist, pressing my heels down on his lower back and letting him put his weight on me as one kiss turned into another.

We melded together and the bare skin of my belly pressed against his between us, the babies shifting against the surface in appreciation of Theo’s body heat.

He felt them against his navel with a smile into our kiss, his hips only just starting to grind against mine when the front door was knocked on twice before opening.

We didn’t jump apart. We merely broke off our kiss slowly before Theo looked up and over the back of the sofa to see who’d come in.

The distinct smell of pulled pork and rice wafted through to the lounge room immediately, causing the commotion inside my belly to stir even more excitedly as the babies anticipated the burrito Scott had brought me.

Theo laughed in surprise and looked down between us to catch sight of the tiny bumps and waves under my skin.

“Hey guys.”

I waved to Scott over the top of the sofa while Theo palmed over the babies.

“You’ve got quite the welcome party here, McCall.” He told Scott.

The alpha rounded the couch to see what he meant, glancing over the position Theo and I were in unsurely before coming closer. I let my knees release my mate, lowering my feet back to the floor to relieve Scott from having to see us in a similar position to the one he’d found Stiles and Derek in.

Theo moved back down to his knees between my feet, pushing my shirt up further so Scott could see the little nudges and pokes coming up from either side of my belly button.

“They’re excited that you’re here.” He told our alpha, watching while those brown eyes witnessed the movement with awe.

I shrugged, looking to the Chipotle bag in his hands.

“Actually,” I started apologetically. “They’re excited about the food.”

Theo rolled his eyes at me, shifting up from his knees to flop down on the sofa beside me.

“Seriously,” He shook his head at Scott in exasperation. “He’s been eating like a maniac.”

I could hear the fondness in his tone, a guilty smile lifting on my lips while Scott laughed at me. I shrugged again.

“Hey, it’s supposed to happen.” My alpha excused, handing over the bag and sitting on the coffee table with our knees colliding. “You need it to let them grow.”

Theo’s arm was slung behind my shoulders while I ripped the bag open, fishing out the foil-wrapped burrito of goodness and peeling the aluminium away to start eating.

“He’ll eat us out of the house soon.”

I let a long moan out upon taking the first bite, tipping my head back and shutting my eyes when the perfect taste of pork and sour cream exploded orgasmically on my tastebuds.

“ _Fuck.”_ I whined in bliss through the mouthful, feeling the babies settle in my stomach. I opened my eyes to my alpha and leered at him in gratitude. “ _Thank you.”_

My two companions laughed lowly, adoration smothering their stupid faces. I wanted to slap it off both of them but decided my burrito was too important to sacrifice. I settled back into the sofa comfortably and bit into it with content.

“How are you holding up, anyway?” I murmured to Scott through another mouthful, looking at him where he sat across from Theo and I. “With the whole Stiles thing. Are you okay?”

He didn’t react as hesitantly as I thought he would. His expression only turned a little tired before he sighed and tilted his head indecisively.

“Honestly, I’m not even sure.” He murmured, twining his fingers together between his thighs. “I still can’t really believe it. I’m shocked that he’s wanted it for so long without telling anyone and that he wants to get _pregnant_ , but it’s like there’s some instinct inside me trying to tell me that this is right. Like I know Stiles will be fine after the bite settles. It’s still weird to imagine him that way but it’s not as daunting as I thought it would be. Something about it almost seems _okay._ ”

“So you want to do it? You want to give him the bite?”

He grimaced.

“I don’t _want to_ , not one hundred percent. I still don’t know how I really feel but I’m just trying not to think about it. When tomorrow night comes we’ll see - if I really don’t feel right about it, I won’t do it.” He sighed again, dragging a hand down over his face. “I know it’ll hurt Stiles and Derek but I don’t want to have to live with it if something goes wrong. I don’t want my best friend’s _death_ on my conscience.”

I worried my lip at him. I thought it was challenging for _me_ to process the situation after Christmas evening, but for Scott it was ten times worse.

He had to choose whether or not he wanted to risk Stiles’s life in order to change it, forever. He’d never be the same again and if something did go wrong, all that guilt would undoubtedly fall to Scott’s shoulders. He wouldn’t forgive himself for allowing it to happen, for being the _reason_ it happened.

“I think he’ll pull through just fine.” Theo reassured him with soft confidence. “Even if something does fuck up, it’s not all on you. Derek will have him, he’ll protect him.”

I nodded to agree, snuggling further back into my mate’s chest in a silent praise for how supportive he was being to Scott.

“Take it from someone who’s mated.” I added, watching my alpha with sympathetic eyes. “Derek won’t even let anyone near him; he’ll have Stiles totally taken care of. I promise.”

The arm around my shoulders lowered, sliding between my back and the sofa until it wrapped around my waist and a hand held the side of my belly. Five fingers wiggled under my shirt, starting to stroke and circle upon my skin in the lightest, most affectionate touches. They lit my veins with a warm fire and sent tingles shooting through my core in what I could only describe as pure chemistry, pure attraction for my mate.

I tipped my head against his cheek in a subtle _I love you._

The arm around my waist pulled me in for a gentle squeeze. _I love you, too._

Scott took a deep breath and shook his head in dismissal of the conversation topic, too unsure about the entire thing to want to talk about it any longer.

“I hope you’re right.” He looked to the floor for a moment before glancing up, giving us a smile and lifting his brows. “Should we get started on these cribs?”

I felt Theo light up with excitement beside me, his arm squeezing me once more before he shifted away to stand up. Scott stood with him and shuffled out from between the sofa and the coffee table, leaving Theo to press a soft kiss to my lips.

“Love you.” He murmured affectionately, letting a thumb stroke my cheek.

I smiled gently, loving the green shine in his eyes.

“Love you.”

_Kiss._

He left me to my laptop and burrito, running his palm over the babies on his way to follow Scott down the hall. He took the box with the car seat with him, and soon all I could hear was the faint beating of their hearts in the spare room, the low hum of their voices while they opened the packaging, and the soft rush of cars on the road outside.

I smiled to myself softly at how comfortable and happy I felt with my two favourite people in the house with me.

The warmth surged through my veins and excited my heart, settling the babies inside me and allowing me enough cosiness to sit back and continue writing my World History essay.

I managed to get through most of it before sundown. It was a little tiring, writing and rewriting and reading through it ten times before realising I’d forgotten to add a source to the paragraph I was on.

I mentally wrestled with it before finally getting the body paragraphs done and feeling adequately pleased with them before typing out a three-sentence bullshit conclusion, saving the document and emailing it off to my teacher with the lowest possible care factor for the outcome. I was just fucking glad that I got the hardest part over with.

I thought I was doing fairly well, all things considered.

It was only a week and one day into our three week break and I already had two essays drafted and emailed off to my teachers for review. The last two would be as easy as homework, but I decided I’d get those done tomorrow. At least in the daytime before the New Year’s party at Stiles’s.

I padded down the hallway, stiff from sitting on the couch for so many hours, and leant against the doorjamb of the babies’ room to find Scott and Theo screwing the last few nails into the second crib.

The mattresses were still in their plastic, laid perfectly inside the frames while the finishing touches were completed, and just to see the two beds actually in there, _real_ in front of me and in our actual house caused a short wave of dizziness to wash over me.

Because it hit me again that this was real, it was happening. We were having babies and they would soon be living and breathing in their own little bodies instead of mine, and they would sleep in these cribs under blankets and dressed in their cute little overalls.

_Christ._

Theo spotted me before Scott did, on the floor with his legs in a wide V on one end of the crib and Scott in a similar position on the other. His eyes were a little tired and his hair had been raked back so many times that it was trained away from his forehead, the dark curve of his eyebrows contrasting with the green of his eyes as they lit up upon seeing me.

He dropped the screwdriver with a smile and hauled himself to his feet, moving towards me immediately and holding his arms out to accept my body into his chest for a cosy hug.

I smiled back, holding him around his waist and pressing my nose to his throat.

“What do you think?” He asked softly, turning to inspect his and Scott’s handiwork with me at his side.

I nodded slowly, surely.

“They’re perfect.” I uttered reflectively, looking upon the cribs with something akin to fondness. “It’s really happening, huh?”

He knew what I meant, turning his head to press a long kiss to my hairline while I rested into his side.

“Mhmm.” He hummed, his lips against my temple. “It’s happening.”

The gentle squeeze to my waist was encouraging, just enough to subtly remind my body and mind to resist the negative thoughts that pushed to get in. Just the touch was enough to lift my heart and block the worries out, because I already knew that nothing would happen until we were ready. It was all going to be okay.

Scott stood with a _ha!_ of finality, putting his hands to his hips and letting a breath out as he looked over the finished cribs. The smile on his face was so proud, so excited.

“I like them.” He nodded with an impressed brow. “Really good choice. Even the colour is perfect for you guys.”

I smiled some, tilting my head to the side to rest it upon Theo’s shoulder. A yawn threatened to float up my throat, my eyes stinging with the need to close and rest.

“Did you finish your History?” My mate asked, and I nodded with a hand over my mouth as the yawn came anyway.

“Finally. Took long enough.”

I was given a rub to my waist.

“At least it’s out of the way; you won’t have to stress over it.” _Kiss._ “Proud of you, baby.”

I looked up to sight the green eyes beside me, propping my chin upon his collarbone.

“Proud of you, too.”

He accepted it with a soft smile, leaning down to join our noses and sucking a careful kiss from my lips.

Scott did his best not to feel awkward while we shared our affection, busying himself with pushing the second crib to meet with the first by the window in the L-shape we’d decided upon. He collected the leftover nails and rubbish from the floor, gathering it all and dumping it into one of the delivery boxes before Theo and I finally had to break apart to give way for another one of my yawns.

My mate laughed gently at me, smoothing my hair back from my temple and stroking my waist in his other hand.

“Look at you, you’re exhausted.” He murmured. “You had a full day today, no naps.”

I nodded with a _hmm_ , leaning forward to snuggle tiredly into his throat while he held me.

“And we haven’t even had dinner yet.” I responded, earning another laugh from the two guys around me.

“Of course you’re thinking about food.”

Scott’s hand circled over my back while they laughed at me.

“C’mon, give him a break.” He _aaw_ ed to Theo. “He’s growing your babies for you.”

I felt my mate’s nod upon my cheek, hearing and smelling the happiness and love in his body at Scott’s words. His arms held me a little more tenderly and he swayed me softly.

“He is.” He pressed a kiss to my cheek before squeezing my hip for attention. “What do you feel like? Something quick and easy?”

“Mm.” I agreed, lifting my head to think. “Grilled cheese. Feel like grilled cheese.”

Two hands rubbed back and forth over my lower back and I saw Scott move into the hallway in the direction of the kitchen.

“On it!” He called while Theo and I exchanged soft smiles.

My mate gave me the most tender kiss.

“Grilled cheese it is.”

  
***

  
I could definitely feel the supermoon New Year’s Eve.

Ever since falling pregnant with the twins the full moons had barely affected me at all – almost like having two literal parts of my anchor inside me acted as a barrier against its power – but when I woke up the next morning, my skin was hot to touch. My heartbeat didn’t exactly race like it used to, but I could feel it pumping stronger inside my chest as though it had a reason to work harder.

Theo was already awake beside me when I woke, propped up on an elbow and watching me with careful hazel eyes as my lashes blinked apart. I was on my side facing him, my hip and waist sunken into the mattress so cosily I doubted I’d be able to roll over without some help.

Besides the elevated heartrate and the fever, I felt surprisingly comfortable. The babies were asleep and nothing ached, per se.

I let myself yawn before reaching up to thumb underneath Theo’s cheekbone.

“Hey.”

He smiled gently, thoughtfully.

“Hey. How’d you sleep?”

I stretched my legs carefully under the sheets, keeping in mind the new lesson I’d learnt yesterday about stretching too much with a pair of babies in my belly. I nodded, letting a pleased sigh leave my nose.

“Really good. I feel fine, all things considered.”

His eyes searched over my face, a hand coming up to stroke over my cheek and trail down my throat before coming to rest over my right pec.

“I was hoping the supermoon wouldn’t affect you.” He said lowly, worriedly. “I don’t want you to suffer through the next few days.”

I closed a hand around his wrist, watching him confidently from upon the pillow.

“I won’t.” I promised. “I’ve got _you_.”

There was something in his eyes this morning. Something about the way he felt through our bond, something about the way he smelt. He was concerned, worried.

It was like he was afraid of what would happen to me and the babies when night rolled around and I didn’t want him to feel that way. I knew myself, knew when I could feel something bad coming, and tonight didn’t give me that feeling.

I was a little excited if anything, excited to see the pack and experience my first New Year’s celebration. And even a little excited for Stiles and Derek.

Sure my skin was feverish and my heart was beating a little faster than normal, but I didn’t feel stressed or _angry._ I wasn’t aggressive in the slightest and I wasn’t in pain, either. If the moon was going to affect me, Theo and I both knew that the anger would be what came first.

He was just worrying anyway because he cared so much.

I pulled him in by his jaw, a breath of relief sighing from my throat when he settled against me and pulled us close. I nosed at his mating bite, dropping a kiss to the skin and feeling my heart pick up at the slight shiver that ran through him at the sensation.

“We both know I’m going to be fine.” I told him in a whisper, feeling his hands gripping at my hips to knead the flesh. “I feel good. Really good.”

His face buried against my throat, his breaths hot and slow upon my skin while our wolves came out to play. They hadn’t gotten what they were begging for during all of yesterday and last night, and now they were resurfacing to make sure it happened.

I felt his hips pushing up, nudging against mine and causing a smooth, hot collision between our erections below the babies in my belly. The fever in my skin heightened, but only for him.

I held onto him, lifting my knees to curl around him while he leant in.

“What if it changes?” He worried into my skin, running his lips down over my collarbone as he slid his hips down the bed. “You could start stressing when the day grows older, you could start to feel it.”

He blew a breath over my nipple.

“You’re being pessimistic.” I exhaled, watching down at him while his hands slid up my sides. “You know what I’m like; I wake up with the aggression. If the moon was going to affect me, that would’ve happened already. This one’s twice as strong and I’m still _fine._ Believe it.”

His eyes grew heavy, staring into me before lowering to the nipple in interest. His teeth bared and he caught the bud between them just gently, only enough to give a barely-there tug before letting it go.

My hands gripped his hair and my chest almost heaved.

“Please.” I asked him breathlessly, our eyes meeting once more. “Believe me. I’m going to be okay.”

He watched me for a long moment before closing his eyes and nodding in submission, leaning up to press the first kiss of the morning to my lips nice and slow.

My limbs all held onto him, wrapping around him and feeling every inch of smooth skin before he broke off to slide back down my body.

He glanced between my pecs, bringing a hand up to hold one while his eyes flitted over the other.

He paused.

“Does your chest hurt?”

I blinked.  
“Huh?”

He looked back down over my nipples before setting his brows in confusion.

“Your chest, does it hurt?”

The hand that held my right pec pressed down a little, feeling and kneading before I realised that _fuck,_ it _did._

I frowned and grimaced as the ache exploded under his fingers, almost wrenching away from his touch before stopping myself.

“ _Ow._ ” I mumbled, looking over myself in confusion. “What the fuck?”

He watched me with curiosity.

“Li. Do you think…?”

I shook my head.  
“No way.”

He didn’t share the same belief.

His body warned me _I’m going to do it again_ before he gently pressed down again, spreading his fingers to fit my nipple between.

My frown hardened at the discomfort before he fingered at the pinkness of my nipple around the bud. The pad of his index finger followed the softness all the way around, his eyes glancing to the left one where he did the same thing.

I almost squirmed under him, a pained pout pushing out just slightly from my lower lip before he stopped.

“Okay, sorry…” He took a deep breath, totally puzzled as he looked between them. “Is it just the muscle that hurts or the nipple too?”

“Just the muscle; nipple’s a bit sensitive.” I put my hands to my face and threw my head back into the pillow with a groan. “I swear to god…”

“Hey,” A hand slid up and down on my sternum comfortingly. “Listen, I’m going to try something yeah?”

I shook my head down at him in upset denial.

“No…”

“Yeah,” He insisted, bright hazel eyes shining up at me. “Just quickly, ready?”

He did it before I could say no.

He pressed his palm down into the meat of my pec and trapped my nipple between his index and middle fingers, pushing until _squeezing_ and tugging slightly.

My nails dug into his wrist and an _ah!_ left me breathlessly before the both of us stared, wide-eyed at the single, murky white droplet that had come from me.

We were silent for a good few seconds, barely breathing while it registered.

Then Theo looked up at me excitedly while I shook my head, _nononono_ moaning through my mind a thousand times over. _This can’t be fucking happening._

“Ooh.”

I grit my teeth.  
“ _Shut up.”_

He reached up to settle me, holding the side of my face while his eyes darted between my own and the white droplet on my nipple.

Something about him had lit up.

“It’s not _bad,_ ” He reassured me quickly, his mouth almost hanging open. “It’s… _Li,_ it’s _milk.”_

“I fucking _know what it is.”_ I hissed, looking down over myself exasperatedly. “Christ, as if this could become any _more_ embarrassing! I’m a guy who’s pregnant, my goddamn guts are _swelling with babies_ and now I’m going to get fucking _tits?!”_

Despite how obviously afraid and humiliated I was, Theo laughed light-heartedly and adoringly. The hand he had on my cheek stroked and those stupid excited eyes sparkled at me, but I swatted him away.

I glared at him, the hairs on the back of my neck bristling.

“Are you _laughing_ at me?”

The question was deathly slow and serious, but he couldn’t stop himself. He chuckled and totally adored me from the mattress beside me, the bright happiness spreading over his face like someone spilled a fucking bottle of _sappiness_ over his head.

This time I didn’t resist.

I punched him in the face.

I sent his head cracking back as my fist collided with his nose, his laugh turning to a surprised cry of pain as the nasal bone crunched. He scuttled to his knees and held a hand below the immediate river of blood, gasping through his mouth and looking at me with wide, innocent eyes.

“What the hell was that for?!”

I sat up, leaning against the headboard and wiping away the stupid drop of white from my nipple with irritation. I folded my arms over my chest – which ended up being my belly – and seethed at him.

“That’ll teach you not to laugh at your embarrassed, hormonal fucking boyfriend next time you squeeze goddamn _milk_ out of his nipple.”

“So you _punched_ me?” He stood from the bed, cupping both hands under the broken nose as he stumbled into the bathroom around the hanging thickness of his morning wood between his thighs. The water from the sink started running and I admittedly started feeling a little bad. “God you’re fucking _fierce.”_

He wasn’t wrong. It’s what he’d been telling me for months.  

I sat and breathed deep and even, clenching my jaw spasmodically and concentrating on trying to squish the raging surge of embarrassment and disgust that poisoned my body.

I couldn’t frigging believe it. _Milk. Goddamn milk._

The squishing of the negative emotions turned out to be fruitless, one bad feeling after another powering through me until the tears stung behind my eyes. I unfolded my arms and looked down to my chest, watching between my nipples while the sadness ran down my cheeks.

_I’m a total freak._

I knew it was mostly hormones talking, but I couldn’t help the way it made me feel. It was overwhelming how strong the ideas and emotions were, taking over my body and trapping my mind until it started to control how I thought. It was like a dark monster with its claws dug deep into me, and I was defenceless.

At least until Theo came back out from the bathroom with a handtowel pressed under his nostrils. The moment I saw him, felt him in the room, the easier it became to rationalise. I felt the negativity start to fade immediately, and with every step he took towards me I felt a little calmer.

I tried to hide, turning my head and wiping at my cheeks to remove the evidence that I was overwhelmed and scared as all fuck, but he wasn’t stupid. He _knew._

The handtowel was laid carefully on the duvet and a hand cupped under my chin, turning my face towards his while his eyes roamed upon my features solemnly. His hands took my cheeks, thumbs wiping the wetness from beneath my lashes tenderly.

His nose was red and already a tad purple on the left of the bridge where I’d hit him hardest, fresh little streams of blood still trickling their way down from his septum, and the awfulness inside me doubled with guilt. I touched his face with featherlight fingers, more tears welling at the sight of what I’d done to him.

“I’m sorry.” I whispered, sniffling and reaching for the towel to dab gently at the blood. “I’m sorry… I just…”

He shook his head softly.

“It’s okay. I know.” He leant in to kiss my lashes. “You don’t need to be afraid or ashamed of this, baby. It’s _beautiful._ You’ll be able to feed our babies yourself.”

“I just… I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

He smiled a little, shrugging it off with ease. His fingers were fond on my face.

“Been a while since you broke my nose.”

I let myself smile too, sniffling before letting the softest laugh out through my nostrils.

“Mm. Since the zoo.”

A dimple showed on his cheek for a moment, long enough for me to touch it before I leant in. He stayed surprisingly still while I pecked an apologetic kiss to the bridge of his nose, my lips pressing down only slightly so I could suck up some of the pain from the break.

I felt it when it started flowing into me through our bond, but he pulled away before I could take all of it.

His thumbs stroked upon my cheekbones and he shook his head.

“Don’t.”

I frowned.  
“Why…?”

“You shouldn’t be taking anyone’s pain; we don’t know what it could do to you or the babies.” He pressed a kiss to my lips carefully, making sure not to bump his nose. “I know you want to but it’s not good for you.”

I sighed, knowing he was right.

“Just feel like I should be trying to make it better.” I murmured, slouching back against the headboard of the bed. “I feel awful. I’m sorry.”

He kissed me once more, slow and gentle to tell me that he was fine.

“Don’t stress. You know how fast I heal from broken noses.” He smiled a little, just to lighten the mood with the memories. “I’ll be good to go in a few minutes.”

I nodded, returning the smile before taking a deep breath and looking back down to my chest. My eyes darted from nipple to nipple warily, as though I expected another droplet to appear on its own. But it didn’t. My pecs didn’t even hurt when they weren’t being pressed on; we wouldn’t have even found out about the milk if Theo hadn’t gone exploring before noticing something was different.

I was still super hesitant about it because honestly, I was a _guy_ and I was lactating… but Theo was right. It wasn’t a bad thing, and there was a fond part of me deep inside that knew it _was_ a beautiful thing. I wouldn’t have to hold our boys and feed them bottle after bottle of powder formula while subconsciously thinking about how they would grow so much better and stronger if they could feed from _me._ It was going to be _possible_ , like so many other impossible things I was able to accomplish.

_You’re not a freak, you’re incredible._

My mate smiled in front of me, as though he heard my thoughts. The pride shone out of him and neither of us bothered to wipe at his nose again before our heads came together for a long, deep kiss. The blood smeared into our lips and was metallic in our mouths but we didn’t care. _I_ didn’t care. If anything I craved to hold him still and lap it all up until it stopped coming – blame the carnivorous wolf babies in my belly for that.

The bleeding stopped another thirty seconds later anyway, his nose finally having repaired itself from the damage. I licked the blood from his tongue and leant back, holding his head while I kissed and sucked the rest of it from his lips and mine.

He didn’t seem to mind that I was licking up his blood. He stayed pliant and content in my hands as I finished cleaning him up, pulling him closer while I shimmied my way back down from the headboard to lie against the pillow.

He held himself on his hands, his torso above me while the rest of him laid pressed up against my side. We stared at each other for a moment before I nodded up at him.

“Go on.” I whispered, opening my body up to him and waiting. “Explore.”

Those eyes lit up with dark seduction and the softest of smiles lifted on his lips. A hand circled down over the babies.

“You sure?”

I nodded, tipping my chin for one more kiss before letting him slide his hips down the bed.

“Sure. I need to get comfortable with it.”

He knew that getting comfortable with something meant letting him pay attention to it. He knew _he_ was the way I got used to things.

He thanked me in gentle kisses to my shoulder, hoisting himself up onto his hands and knees and crawling between my legs on my side of the bed. I cradled him between my thighs, not minding the weight of his stomach upon my hipbones or his chest upon the firm swell of my lower belly. He supported himself enough to keep his weight from hurting me, kissing the babies on their respective sides before sliding a hand up my ribs and letting his lips follow.

Kiss after kiss was pressed to my skin, his lips cool upon my fever. My hands threaded into the length of his hair and followed his head up from my navel to my sternum as he loved every inch of me that he could, smoothing his hand over me and glancing up with bright, inquisitive eyes.

 _Go on,_ I nodded. I gave him a soft smile, dragging in the remaining taste of blood from my lip with my teeth and swallowing it.

His eyes directed back down and he let his hand slide up over my left pec this time. He was slow, taking his time to give me the opportunity to stop him if I really felt uncomfortable, but I didn’t. I let his fingers gently press and feel, trying to locate some form of swelling in the muscle. He dropped one more kiss to my skin before doing the same thing as before, spreading his fingers and pressing down around my nipple before squeezing it just enough.

It ached a little and I bit my lip with an inhalation to manage the discomfort, but I found my hips bucking up into him at the same time as though my body _liked_ it.

More white fluid seeped from my nipple obediently as Theo squeezed, coaxing more out with his fingers until the drop grew too big to stay still. He caught it with his finger as it ran towards my sternum, wiping it all up and lifting it to eye level to inspect it.

“Looks weird.” I murmured, shifting softly beneath him while the blood filled me up under his hips. “Pale, not like normal milk.”

He smiled a little, tilting his head.

“It’s _not_ normal milk, it’s not like the stuff you get out of a carton.”

I rolled my eyes at him. _I know that._

We looked at the drop for a moment longer before Theo moved and it disappeared – into his mouth.

I gaped at him, my heart having a quick spasm at the sight of my mate _tasting_ the fluid from my nipple. Part of me was in a silent rage of surprise, but the other part was hardening painfully against his stomach between us. Because it was _hot._

I had trouble breathing for a few seconds, watching while he sucked the milk from his finger and tasted it upon his tongue. I wanted to ask him what the hell was wrong with him, but couldn’t bring myself to speak. I was mute until he said something.

“It’s sweet.” He smiled, meeting my eyes with a mischievous, wondrous spark as he felt me hardening against his belly. He circled his hips on me just enough to make my jaw fall open in arousal. “Is it sore?”

I shook my head, closing my mouth and trying to take a deep breath to calm the racing of my heart.

“Only when you push on it.”

He leant up to suck on my lip, drawing me into a kiss and brushing my hair back with a few fingers. I looked down over myself when he settled back down below me.

“I thought it was too early for this kind of thing to happen.”

He brushed a finger over the hardness of my nipple, raising goosebumps on my arms.

“Your body’s doing a lot of things too early.” He laughed softly. “Those babies should only be two months along, but they’ve grown twice as fast. Maybe it’s just because you’re built for it. Your body can handle it.”

My chest started to lightly heave, my hands fisting in his hair when he reached down between us to press a finger to my hole. I took it in without complaint, biting down on my lip when Theo started to leer at me from below.

He watched me for a second before lowering his head, zeroing in on my left nipple and holding the pec gently when his tongue darted out to lick over its hardness. The talented muscle made me tingle all over, pushing the bud of my nipple up under its pressure and then down, tonguing at the tip as though he wanted to try lick inside. I took another finger in with a hoarse breath, and then my nipple was taken into his mouth.

He kissed it a few times, letting those kisses get harder and harder before finally, he sucked.

His lashes lowered and I watched his cheeks hollow as he pulled, grinding his hips up against me and pushing his fingers deep when the fluid he was waiting for came out to grace his tongue. It was the most foreign sensation, being drunk from: a mix between a tickle and a dull ache that sent my head spinning with dizziness.

My nails scratched upon his scalp.

“ _Shit…”_ I let it out just to verbally tell him how it felt, what he was doing to me.

He knew, though.

He sucked and sucked until I felt like I was about to explode between us. I watched him with heavy-lidded eyes as he finally let go, his eyes staying closed as he swallowed and tasted the milk he’d sucked out of me.

When those eyes opened, his pupils were blown out.

“Fuck.” He lifted his brows in breathless surprise. He shook his head at me slowly. “You have no idea…”

I panted beneath him, my hands having fallen from his hair to hold the sides of his throat. I nodded, because I _did_ have an idea. I felt him, felt all of him.

“I know.” I whispered.

He came up for a full, deep kiss. Our tongues danced together and we pulled each other closer under the sheets while we leaked against each other and shared the taste between our mouths. He was right, it _was_ sweet. Like it was the nectar of my entire being.

“Wanna try something.” He murmured against my lips, earning my approval with a soft nod and a squeeze to his hips with my legs.

He ducked back down to my nipple, standing up on his knees to take the pressure off my belly and reaching between us to wrap a hand around our cocks together. He started to stroke and jerk us with firm squeezes and pulls while closing his mouth around my nipple for a second time and sucking relentlessly. His tongue tickled and nudged at the nipple to encourage more milk out, my eyes rolling back and another groan leaving my chest at the mere sensation.

“ _Uh, fuck.”_

I wasn’t sure how long I would last if he kept up all the attention like this.

He surfaced again when he’d sucked out as much as he wanted, holding it in his mouth instead of swallowing it. His hand let our cocks go and he stood on his knees, watching me with blown-out green eyes as he cupped a hand under his mouth and expelled the white liquid into it.

I whined for him, putting together what he was going to do and begging myself with everything I had not to cum, not yet.

He lowered the hand to his dick and stroked himself with the milk from my body, slicking himself up and making the hottest, wettest sounds with it before lifting my ankles to his shoulders and pressing open-mouthed kisses to the insides of my thighs.

I held onto him while he slapped his thickness against my hole, felt the wetness of my own milk painting my entrance before he lined up and bore down with his waist. My body let him right in, stretching around him and squeezing the thickness as he deepened right to the hilt. Low moans drew from both our throats as he bottomed out, nudging up at that familiar spot inside my belly and igniting a burning hot fire to heat up my already feverish skin.

Our bodies tingled and electrified as we joined, our wolves sighing in relief and our bloods almost sparkling as we became one, became the whole that we belonged as. We could almost feel the seams between us sewing themselves up, locking us together and creating something we wished could be permanent.

Theo settled down above me, resting an elbow down on either side of my shoulders and palming my hair back from my forehead as he dropped a messy, relieved kiss to my lips and started rolling his hips into me.

“God yes,” He breathed into my mouth, holding me close as his strokes inside me picked up a steady, intermediate rhythm. “You okay? Y’ can’t be on your back for too long… the babies…”

“I’m fine.” I promised, looping my arms around his neck and holding his shoulders as he fucked me. “Love you…”

_Kiss, kiss, kiss._

“Love you too. So much.”

_Smack, smack, smack, smack, smack._

The slap of our hips meeting sung to us, picking up faster and faster until they all seemed to blur together and our moans and cries started joining in. Our foreheads stayed together, our breaths mingling and our sweat mixing while we held onto each other and made each other feel so fucking incredible, so beautiful. We were both jolting up against the pillows with the force of Theo’s hips but it was okay.

_Smacksmacksmacksmacksmacksmacksmack._

“ _Shit…”_ I held onto him, keeping him so close as he fucked me closer and closer to my orgasm. I felt it, hot and wet and swirling inside my belly, ready to detonate and send me spinning into a world of numbness. “So good, Theo. _So fucking good.”_

His face buried into my throat, kissing and biting down upon my veins as he fucked. A hand reached down to hold the babies as stably as he could with the force of his movements jostling us, and the feel of his fingertips pressing into them made my body quake.

I almost felt him up there in my belly with them, he was so deep. I could feel them growing heavier and heavier inside me, so lax and pleased with having their father so incredibly close. They turned to jelly inside me and moved in whichever way we did, because they were happy and comfortable and just so perfect having us there together.

I was in complete heaven and it made me wonder if that was what it would feel like for us to hold them together when they were born.

When Theo lifted his head from my throat to look me in the eyes, I was unable to look away. I held the sides of his face while he worked, searching those eyes as something suddenly bubbled up between us. It came from him, an emotion I hadn’t quite felt from him in such ferocity before. It was the deepest love, followed by what felt like _yearning._ It was almost as though he wanted to tell me something, to ask something, but I had no idea what.

I opened my mouth, wanting to catch enough breath to ask him, but ended up expelling a low, tortured moan when he dropped down to suck more milk out of me. I buzzed and tingled, holding onto him and squeezing my eyes shut because it was _coming,_ the zinging orgasm that I knew was going to send me spinning into another dimension.

I held on, though, kept myself conscious as he lifted his head and joined our lips immediately, prying my mouth open with a thumb over my bottom set of teeth and spilling the milk into me. He kissed it deep down my throat, low fucked-out whispers of _taste it_ flowing through – and it was the final touch.

I came with a swallowed, wet cry into his mouth and dug my fingernails into his shoulders as I squeezed around him and exploded. I felt it paint our stomachs between us, my nerve-endings going into spasm and shocking out with numbness while Theo filled me up with his own load. He stayed as deep as possible, whining into my throat and letting his hips jerk and throb into me while we rode out our highs together.

The smell of us and the sweet, new taste of milk was all that I knew for a long sixty seconds, my vision a blur of tan golden skin, brunette hair and the white of the bedroom ceiling while my head spun and my body tingled to numbness. I felt our bodies throbbing and pulsing together, our hearts trying to slow down as we came down from the world beyond piece by piece, and it was a very long time before we were finally able to open our eyes and properly focus on each other.

A few fingers fondly carded my hair back from my forehead and Theo smiled tiredly down at the sight of me while I smiled at the sight of him.

I know we both saw home.

We shared one slow, lazy kiss before stirring, rolling onto our sides to relieve the pressure on my back from the babies and a hand stroked up and down on my spine.

“Feel like pancakes for breakfast?”

I nodded enthusiastically as our blissed-out smiles grew.

“Mhmm. _Please.”_

  
***

  
  
“Happy New Year, bitches!”

Everyone knew when Mason arrived at the party. Heads lifted and laughter rang out through the lounge room while my best friend danced his way in, Corey being tugged in his wake with a six-pack of what looked like vodka under his arm.

Malia’s eyes rolled playfully beside Theo and I on the sofa, all of us paying witness to a ridiculously inappropriate game of spin the bottle between Derek, Stiles, Isaac, Lydia and Parrish on the lounge room floor. So far three shirts had been taken off and one pair had kissed. We tried not to watch but it really was too entertaining to miss.

It was only eight o’clock, but the night almost felt over to me. My body was growing more tired as the minutes passed by, my stomach full with dinner and babies and my eyelids threatening to close.

Everyone seemed to be here except for Deaton, Peter, Jackson and Ethan. Isaac, Scott and Malia were in touchy moods due to the supermoon but having the pack all around them really seemed to help with the symptoms. It distracted them.

Derek was as unreadable as ever, although it was very clear in the air that he and Stiles were deeply anticipating the planned event of the night. They still hadn’t seemed to tell anyone, but the way Sheriff Stilinski shot worried, deeply concerned looks to his son from the kitchen with Melissa and Chris told me that Stiles and Derek had told him.

The poor man looked pale, sick with worry. He wasn’t enjoying himself at all and every now and then I could see Melissa’s hand rest upon his shoulder. He wasn’t taking it very well.

I could feel the desperation in his mood, the reluctance to let his son do what he was planning on doing. I knew there was no bad blood between him and Derek; this was on his son. It was his decision after all.

There was a definite tension in the house that everyone could feel, but no one asked any questions. They all just knew that if someone needed to talk, they would open up about it in their own time.

Theo and I were comfortable and close as ever. Since this morning, we hadn’t stopped touching each other once. It was like instead of driving us mad, the supermoon had drawn us closer together. Somehow we’d reached a new level of closeness – and I was starting to believe that the levels never really _ended._ We would keep growing closer and falling further and further in love with each other until it burst inside us, and honestly I couldn’t think of a better way to die if it was going to happen.

The babies hadn’t caused a fuss all day, the both of them quiet and floating around gently inside me with contentedness from the dosage of _us_ from this morning. I was extremely comfortable and nothing was aching. All I felt was a constant hum of love and attraction for the Chimera beside me.

“Liuuum!” The familiar cry came from behind me, a chocolaty pair of arms criss-crossing over my chest from behind the sofa as Mason pulled me back into a hug. His head joined to the side of mine and I felt the coldness of his cheek from the winter winds outside. “How’s my favourite pregnant wolfy? I’ve missed you!”

I laughed, holding his arms to hug him back.

_He’s ridiculous._

“Your favourite pregnant wolfy is fine.” I answered jovially, unable to wipe the smile off my face at the presence of so much family around me. “I missed you guys too. Did you all convince your parents easily enough to let you come tonight?”

Corey appeared in front of us, without the six pack of vodka bottles. He shrugged, leaning down to give me a short hug before flopping down into the armchair across from us.

“My Mom didn’t want to let me come but Dad stook up for me. Warned me not to get into trouble and said for me to text them before I went to sleep.”

Mason dropped into his boyfriend’s lap, one of the bottles already cracked open in his hand.

“Mine were so cool.” He grinned. “I’m allowed to stay with Corey for as long as I want.”

I tipped my chin to the bottle of alcohol in his hand.

“And do they know you’re drinking? How’d you even get your hands on it?”

My best friend leant back into Corey’s chest with loving eyes.

“Babe might’ve used his powers to sneak in and pinch some for me.”

Malia and I gaped in reprimand at the two of them.

“Seriously?” Malia cried while I exhaled _what?!_

Corey put his hands up.  
“I didn’t _want to!_ But it’s not like I _stole_ it, I left the money on the counter.”

We rolled our eyes at the couple, watching while Mason took a proud swig of his vodka. We all knew he was going to be absolutely shitfaced by the time this was over, absolutely no doubt about it.

“But enough about us,” He motioned to me excitedly. “Show us the blueberries! We haven’t seen them in an entire five days! Have they grown?”

“Not noticeably,” I laughed, glancing to Theo before he nodded, nudging me to my feet. “They look the same as last time you saw me, I think.”

“C’mere!” Mason beckoned me over, reaching out a hand and tugging me closer while I lifted the shirt up my belly for them. His and Corey’s eyes scanned over the surface excitedly. “Damn. So round.”

A ridiculing laugh almost left my lips, but it blew away when I caught the thick, sour scent of jealousy from my left. I looked to the circle of people on the carpet immediately, my eyes finding Stiles’s while he and Derek stared at my bare belly from across the room. That very same envy and longing stretched through the room like a poisonous gas, every supernatural soon knowing who it was coming from and where it was directed.

I dropped the shirt from my fingers, slowly pulling it back down over the babies and leaning back into Theo when he appeared behind me. His arms encircled me protectively and he turned our backs to the jealous couple, making himself my shield.

Mason and Corey looked back and forth between us, Stiles and Derek.

“What the hell was that about?”

“Why do they smell so _awful?”_

I bit my lip, unable to help but hear when the others in the room asked the same thing to Stiles and Derek on the floor. Theo’s hands were hot and possessive over my hips, rubbing under my t-shirt to remind me that it was up to Stiles and Derek to tell everyone, not us.

I kept my mouth shut, leaning into the comfort of my mate while he spoke instead.

“You’ll know soon.” He told my friends lowly, softly.

They exchanged glances before looking back to the couple. I felt the discomfort and slight panic roll off Stiles and Derek in the event of having everyone’s eyes on them and I waited with my eyes drawn down to Theo’s hands over my hips. I covered them with my own and our fingers laced together.

We didn’t turn once, keeping our backs to them while their hearts beat faster and their scents worsened.

“Guys?” Malia asked slowly. “You smell like shit.”

“You really do.” Isaac was next. “I mean, I didn’t want to say anything but it’s a little hard not to notice…”

“Stiles?” Lydia’s voice was slow, soft and worried. “What’s going on?”

The room was quiet, save for the music in the kitchen and the blare of the TV with news coverage on New Year’s celebrations in LA. Even the adults in the kitchen had gone quiet, listening and bracing for the possible shitstorm that was about to erupt.

I could almost hear the lump that Stiles tried to swallow around in his throat.

“We don’t have to say anything if you aren’t ready.” Derek murmured to him across the spin the bottle circle.

“No…” His voice was hoarse. “We have to.”

“ _We?_ Are you _together?”_

Stiles bristled at Mason’s question. I could almost feel the grimace on his face before he spoke.

“Uh… yes. Derek and I are together.”

I heard a heartbeat or two skip and falter, felt the surprise in the room around us. But no one was shocked, there was no bad energy anywhere.

“Well, that’s awesome.” Mase encouraged them brightly. “Why didn’t you say anything? You guys know you don’t have to hide around us.”

“Exactly,” Malia agreed. “What, we know like three gay couples already? There’s no way we wouldn’t accept you guys.”

My fingers squeezed uncomfortably on Theo’s for a moment at the term, because I still considered myself bixsexual instead of gay – he was the only guy I’d ever found myself attracted to. But the gentle squeeze that he returned told me we didn’t need to label ourselves anything except for _happy._ And he was right.

“Thank you,” Derek told them all gently. “You have no idea how much that means to us, but… that’s not the only thing we need acceptance for.”

The room fell back into the concerned haze, confusion and wariness floating back out from all the bodies except for mine, Theo’s and Scott’s.

I could actually _feel_ the tears in Stiles’s eyes, every pack member turning soft and empathetic upon noticing.

“What is it?” Lydia sounded so faint. “What’s happened? Is one of you…”

“No one’s hurt, Lydia.” Stiles breathed thickly. “We’ve made a decision, a huge one.”

Everyone started to anticipate the same thing we had, all thinking that he wanted to become a werewolf – which was half right. But I braced myself, held onto Theo and waited for the huge shock that was about to be dropped onto them all.

“Are you moving in together? Getting hitched?”

“No…” Derek answered slowly. I could just see him in my mind’s eye, looking across the circle to Stiles. “He…”

It was silent. They were communicating with each other, asking whether they were ready to say it or not. Asking _who_ should say it.

“Stiles wants the bite.” He announced finally.

Breaths were held, expelled and sucked in. It wasn’t as big a shock as they expected, but it was still huge. I could just hear them convincing themselves it wasn’t that big a deal, but…

“I want _Scott’s_ bite.”

Stiles dropped it on them.

Everyone went stock still. Even as the shattering of a glass crashed out from the kitchen, and I held on tighter to Theo as the stress from Noah seeped into me. He held me, his arms wrapping right around the babies and melding me back into his chest. _I’ve got you._

No one spoke for a really long time, no one even daring to breathe as they pieced together the implication of wanting Scott’s bite specifically, what his bite meant that no one else’s did. Several hearts hammered and someone actually started feeling sick in the room behind us, and I was sure it was Lydia.

Total guilt was radiating from Scott on the sofa next to Malia, all eyes darting between him and the couple in question in curiosity, all of them seeming to silently ask, _is it true? You agreed to do this? You never said anything. Is this real?_

It overwhelmed them all and Theo made himself into the strongest shield he could for me, to block all of it out. Because he knew how receptive I was, knew that I would absorb everyone’s anguish in a heartbeat. I just held onto his arms and shut my eyes, concentrated on his heartbeat and his breathing and the rhythmic stroke of his fingers over the babies.

“Stiles… _are you sure?”_  
“That’s something you seriously can’t take back. Look at what Liam’s gone through…”  
“Don’t you think you’re rushing into it?”  
“Is that why you’ve been looking at Theo and Liam so weird?”

“We’ve _thought about it, alright?”_ Stiles burst out under all the questions and pressure, silencing everyone. “You have no idea what it’s like to want something this badly, none of you. I want to be able to mate with Derek and I want to have _kids, damn it._ That’s the end of it, there’s no other question.”

“Actually, _some_ people _do_ know what it’s like.” Mason interjected seriously, almost harshly. And he was right; he was just like Stiles – a human in a relationship with a supernatural. “Corey might not be able to shapeshift like the others but he can still mate with other weres. You don’t think _I_ want to be able to bond with him like that? We’ve all seen how incredible it is.”

“Mason, I never meant…”

“It’s _okay_ , Stiles. You just have to realise that no one is attacking you, so stop trying to defend yourself. You don’t need to; we’re your _family.”_

“Exactly.” Lydia pitched in. “Stiles, you know everyone will always be here to support you. We’re just worried that maybe you haven’t thought this through properly, rationally. It’s a _huge_ decision. You’ve just started your _life,_ you’re in college and studying to work with the FBI. You can’t do that if you’re…”

She couldn’t say it, and I couldn’t blame her. I couldn’t even say it for a long time.

“Pregnant.” She whispered finally.

I heard everyone’s hearts skip at the word.

Theo nuzzled into my throat, his lips resting upon my collarbone while we listened.

“I know all that.” Stiles admitted softly, defeated. “I’ve considered everything there _is_ to consider, and even though it puts a kink in my plans I can still _do it._ My happiness comes before my work, and this is what’s going to make me happiest. Just please, I need you guys behind me. I can’t do it if you’re going to hate me.”

“No one hates you, Stiles.”  
“We’re always going to have your back, you know that.”  
“Hey, it’ll be awesome to have two trueblood betas in the pack. More babies to buy for.”

The mood started lightening, soft smiles and laughs bubbling up from amidst the shock.

“We’ve got you, Stiles.” Lydia comforted him. “We’re going to be here for you for all of it.”

“ _I can’t believe they’re supporting this…”_ Came the stressed whisper from the kitchen, and everyone quietened to listen as Noah broke down.

Melissa and Argent seemed to take hold of him.

“Noah, Stiles is a strong kid.” Melissa reassured him softly. “You know what he’s like, he’ll fight through anything. He’ll be just fine, he’ll be _happy._ ”

“He’s an adult now.” Argent agreed. “You’ve got to try let him go, to let him make his own choices. I’ve known Derek for a long time and even though we didn’t quite start on the right foot, I’d trust him with my life. He’s going to protect your son.”

The upset breath left Noah’s throat and I heard Stiles sniffling against someone’s chest.

Theo and I slowly turned around to face everyone, finally. They all had their heads down, listening and crowded around Stiles on the carpet while he hugged to Derek’s chest. It was the most compassionate sight in the world and I was sure that even though his Dad was reluctant and in tears about the whole thing, he must’ve felt untouchable, so supported.

“It’s going to kill him.” Noah breathed, and the tears rolled down Stiles’s face to hear his father actually crying. “He can’t do it. If the bite doesn’t kill him, someone else will. You saw the way those people hunted Liam down.”

“Those people were a pair of psychotic anatomists grieving over their inability to conceive children.” Argent said firmly. “They heard about Liam by chance and the police didn’t believe him when he went to them about the couple. Now that it’s happened, everyone’s eyes are open to it. I highly doubt it’ll happen again, but if – _if –_ it does, your son is going to be so well-protected.”

“You know you can’t change his mind, Noah.” Melissa’s voice was low and soothing. “He’s going to do it whether you’re on board or not. But he’s going to need your support more than anyone else in the world. You can’t abandon him.”

“I just…” He sounded tired. So tired. “I can’t. I need some air.”

Everyone listened as Noah left out the back door to the backyard. Melissa could be heard following him while Chris came out, finding the pack all crowded around Stiles on the floor supportively.

His eyes flashed to us and Scott before looking back to Stiles.

“He’ll come around.” He nodded softly. “You just need to give him time to process it.”

Stiles nodded, accepting the thumb Derek offered to wipe up his tears.

“So… when are you going to do it?” Mason asked softly. “It’ll have to be soon… you go back to college tomorrow, right?”

Stiles swallowed, looking over everyone’s faces before finding mine and Theo’s. His eyes softened and that same longing came back.

“Tonight.” He whispered. “We’re doing it tonight.”

“What?” Several people breathed.

“He doesn’t go back to college for another week.” Derek explained for him. “His college works a little differently to Scott’s.”

“So you’re getting the bite tonight?”

Stiles nodded.  
“Actually… now that you guys finally know, I think I’m ready.”

Heartbeats stammered with shock, as did mine and Scott’s when the words left his mouth.

Stiles looked to Scott with a slow nod.

“I’m ready.”

Worry shone out of the alpha’s sad brown eyes, but he nodded back to his best friend anyway. He took a deep breath and stood from the sofa, Stiles and Derek following suit and standing from the crowd of people on the floor.

They were hugged and wished well by everyone, held close and stroked and kissed. Scott got hugs too. It was like the pack could feel that he was worried sick about the outcome, so they were giving him the support he needed to go through with this.

Eyes flickered to us when it was time, Stiles and Derek watching us unsurely while Scott held out his hand for me.

“I need you guys with me.” He murmured, those brown eyes pleading with Theo and I. “There’s no way I can do it without you there.”

Mason nodded, somehow understanding.

“You’re his success.” He added. “You’ll reassure him that Stiles will be fine.”

“You’ve been through it before, too.” Malia agreed. “It’ll help Stiles to feel better.”

Everyone seemed to be urging me on, so I gripped Theo’s hand in mine and slowly stepped forward to take Scott’s in my other. As soon as our hands connected, it was like the room relaxed. Everyone felt relieved, like the support team for Scott and Stiles was complete now that I’d agreed to be there.

I could feel how strongly the supermoon was affecting my alpha just through his skin. He was hot to touch and his heartbeat was heavy, the persistent nudge of his wolf inside him urging him desperately to surrender to the night and shift. I smoothed a thumb over his knuckles as we started to move through the lounge room, following Stiles and Derek up the stairs and into Stiles’s bedroom.

When the door closed behind us, it was like we’d entered into something so private, so personal. It was just the five of us to witness this, to help it along and support each other while Stiles’s life was changed completely.

The window was slid open to let in the chilling night air, the ceiling fan was turned on and the curtains were drawn shut. All that illuminated the room was the lamp on the study desk. Several bottles of water were already waiting on the nightstand, along with a bowl and a flannel.

They were prepared for the basics of the change; Stiles’s body was going to burn hot. _Really_ hot.

He stripped of his shirt and jeans, undressing until only a pair of boxer shorts remained. He wasn’t _skinny,_ but he wasn’t built either. His skin was pale and his hips were narrow, his shoulders broad but not nearly as broad as Derek’s. He was kind of small. Like me.

I had a hard time seeing him swelling with more than one baby, however. He didn’t look _built_ for it, but maybe he would after the bite had done its job. Or maybe he wouldn’t be as fertile as me. Maybe he’d only conceive one.

Scott paced the room quietly while Derek prepared everything for Stiles, arranging the bedsheets and making sure he had towels and extra changes of sheets – and I assumed that it would be for all the sweat. I couldn’t imagine them wanting to have sex while Stiles was in so much agony.

Stiles looked to me while Derek fussed and Scott paced, moving a few steps closer to where Theo and I stood. Theo bristled at the approach and his eyes glowed beside me, his arm curling tighter around my waist and pulling me behind his shoulder, but I stopped him.

“It’s okay,” Stiles put his hands up. “I just… I’m sorry. For causing so much commotion around you – I doubt it’s a good environment for you and the babies. And I didn’t mean to keep staring at you like that, I just-”

“It’s _fine,_ Stiles.” I interrupted. I smoothed a hand over Theo’s stomach, leaning into his side to reassure him that Stiles was no threat. “I can feel how much you want it. I’d be looking at me the same too if I were you.”

The young man nodded, his eyes flickering over to where Scott stood facing the corner, his head down and his hands at his mouth as he tried to calm himself down about the situation.

“And I’m sorry for hurting Scott.” Stiles whispered, looking back to me. “I know how hard this is crushing him and I know you’ve got this huge bond with him. He’s your alpha and I’ve put such a huge weight on his shoulders. So I’m sorry.”

I shook my head slowly, unable to believe that Stiles was apologising to _me_ for hurting the best friend he’d known his entire life. Sure I was his bitten beta and there was a certain connection between us, but I hadn’t known him for even a _quarter_ of the time Stiles had known him. They were literally inseparable.

“He’s yours, too.” I breathed gently to him. “You don’t have to apologise to me. Just talk to him.”

He nodded, glancing to his best friend in the corner before looking back to me with hesitancy.

“Just one more thing…”

I nodded.  
“What is it?”

His eyes glanced down to my belly, safe under Theo’s hand.

“What is it like?”

I followed his eyes, looking upon the babies and trying to find the words to explain. Trying to figure out where to even begin. But instead of saying anything, I looked up to Theo.

I drew him down so I could press a kiss to the corner of his mouth, confusing Stiles for a moment. But Theo knew exactly what the kiss was: _I’m going to try something. Please don’t get mad._

His jaw clenched and his eyes shone at me protectively before he took a deep breath and softened, moving his hand away from the babies to rest upon my hip. He nosed at the side of my head. _I’ll try._

I reached out for Stiles, making him flinch slightly in wariness and shock before he curiously let my hand close around his wrist. I pulled him in closer and he took the steps, his brows furrowing before I grounded myself, inhaled and drew his hand down under my shirt.

Stiles sucked his breath in when his fingers met with my skin. His heartbeat skyrocketed, as did Theo’s in protectiveness, and for a moment no one really moved. I felt an uncomfortable tingling in my veins begging me to escape the foreign hand over our babies but pushed past it. They weren’t in danger and neither was I.

I didn’t let go of Stiles’s wrist until his palm slid up to feel the fullness of my belly, holding Theo’s leg behind me instead and watching while the human before me stared in awe at what he was touching. Even Derek paused to watch while his fingers felt and smoothed over the surface of my skin. He stroked over it slowly before growing a little more confident, pressing and feeling experimentally while the strongest surge of excitement and anticipation flooded his veins and sent the air sweet with it.

I saw the love flare in his eyes, brightening his face and warming his fingertips as he saw and felt what he was going to experience in the near future. I’d been hesitant about how much he _really_ wanted it before, but seeing and feeling the emotions before me changed my mind. He was so ready for this and he’d do whatever it took to make it happen.

He almost had hearts in his eyes; he was in heaven.

The softest of smiles spread over his lips and he shook his head in wonder.

“It’s incredible.” He almost laughed. “It’s like, _real._ Proper. It can happen.”

I watched his hand sliding over the babies for a few seconds longer before glancing up to meet his eyes.

“It can, but it’s not all sunshine and rainbows.” I warned him softly. He nodded. “It’s hard. You get raging hormones, you throw up everything you eat for a few months, and then after that it’s all stretching pains and rapid swelling and you’re dead tired like _all the time._ ”

Stiles grimaced a little before letting out a nervous laugh.

“I’m prepared for that. And if it makes you feel any better, you look totally fine.”

My lips twitched with a smile.

“Keep Derek close.” I told him, squeezing my fingers into the thigh in my hand. Theo rubbed at my waist in response. “The blood bond helps you through it so much more than you think.”

Stiles was thoughtful, nodding to accept the advice as he looked back down to the hand he had flat on my belly. Theo reached down, lifting my shirt to gather at the top of the swelling and tapping a gentle finger upon my right.

“If you press here, you might feel a little nudge.” He told Stiles, and I wanted to turn around and kiss him. He was dropping his guard, trusting Stiles and showing him where to feel.

Stiles’s eyes lit up and he glanced to us with excitement.

“Really?”

I nodded him on, smiling softly at how much I loved my mate.

The human in front of me followed Theo’s directions, sliding his hand to my right and pressing his fingers over the fullest part of the swell. We laughed when nothing happened.

“A little harder, it won’t burst.”

He hesitantly pushed down, pressing in over and over until baby A decided to move for him, coming up against the surface and doing one of his tumbles right into Stiles’s palm. The way his eyes lit up was priceless, so in love. It made suffering through the discomfort worth it.

“Holy shit.” He was breathless, trying to follow the baby around under my skin. “It’s _big._ Derek, you have to feel this.”

The wolf paused across the room, glancing at us uncertainly until Theo gave him a nod of permission. Even Scott turned, distracted from the stress and moving over to see what was happening as Derek approached to stand beside his lover.

Stiles took his hand and held it, pressing on baby A again and pushing his lover’s palm over my belly quickly. I felt the baby make the effort to tumble again inside me, the poor thing still heavy and sleepy with comfort from having Theo and I so close together this morning.

Derek’s eyes lit up too, his hand jolting in surprise as the baby curved up against his hand from inside me. And I decided then, by the euphoric look on both their faces in front of me, that this was the right decision. I knew Scott felt it, too, just seeing them so happy and excited and enthralled quickly convincing us that they wouldn’t be happy _without_ this. It was what they needed.

“This will be me in two months, hopefully.” Stiles wished, smiling at the bright face of his lover as the baby settled down again. I felt Derek’s hand slide a little, his fingers pressing to feel the firmness of the swelling just to see what it was like. “We’ll get to feel them together every time they move.”

I heard Derek’s heart pick up, joy rising inside him at the mere thought.

“It’ll be amazing.” He smiled, letting me go and pulling Stiles back a step to give Theo and I some room to breathe. He nodded to us. “Thank you.”

Theo smoothed my shirt back down and wrapped his arms around me, nodding back in a soft _you’re welcome_ and putting his lips to my temple to stay. I leant my head back against him and held his arms, relief flooding through me now that the strange hands were gone and it was all me and Theo.

I felt a little bad because Scott still hadn’t even felt the babies yet, but I couldn’t feel any negative emotions from him. He was happy to wait, knowing that he’d prefer to let it happen when I was truly comfortable with it. I personally wanted to wait until the babies were active and much more awake so he would get to feel how psycho they got when they wanted food. I knew the look on his face would be priceless.

He met eyes with Stiles finally, for the first time since we entered the room, and his shoulders sagged as the resistance left him. He put his arms out and Stiles walked into them, hugging his best friend close and burying his face into his shoulder.

“You really want to do this, Stiles? You’re sure?”

He nodded.  
“I’m sure. I’m ready, Scott.”

Scott squeezed his eyes shut and nuzzled into his best friend’s throat, inhaling him as a human for the last time.

“It’s going to hurt, so much.” He warned him. “It usually takes its time to make changes to your body before the full moon, but it _is_ the full moon. It’ll happen fast and it’ll be so hard on you. You won’t get a break from the pain until morning.”

“I can do it.” Stiles promised into Scott’s shoulder. “I can handle it.”

They broke apart and Scott held his face, looking over it fondly and protectively before swallowing and nodding.

“Okay.” He breathed, steeling himself. “Let’s do it.”

He left a kiss to Stiles’s forehead and Derek brushed a hand over his shoulder, moving to the window to part the curtains.

The door bashed open urgently, however, and Noah strode in. His eyes roamed over us quickly, looking down over the prepared bed and finally to Stiles in nothing but his underwear. Tears filled his eyes and he shut the door, moving up to his son and taking his face in his hands.

“Dad, please…” Stiles held his wrists.

Noah shook his head.

“You can’t do it. _You can’t._ It’ll kill you.”

His father’s crying started Stiles’s own. It was one step backwards from the step they’d just taken forward with Scott.

“It won’t kill me, Dad, it’ll make me stronger. It’ll make me who I want to be.” He pleaded with every bone in his body. “I want to do this, I want to be like Liam. I don’t care about the danger.”

“You _should.”_

“Well I don’t. I have people to protect me, I’ll have _you._ Please. I need your support.”

“I can’t support the decision to put your life in danger. This bite could just as easily kill you-”

“But it _won’t._ I’m strong enough, I can handle the pain. You have no idea how much I want this – I’ll be able to be with Derek. I’ll be able to have _children…_ don’t you want to get grandbabies?”

It hit a soft spot for Noah, his face collapsing at the idea of Stiles having children.

“You’ll get _grandbabies_ , Dad. You’ll get to hold them and see them grow up, you’ll get to teach them so much just like you taught me. You’ll never get that if I don’t do this. None of us will ever experience that happiness.”

Noah looked fit to fall to his knees. I’d never seen him so emotional before, his hands gripping his son’s face and stroking over his cheeks tenderly as he looked from his eyes over to me. The Sheriff looked at Theo and I, looked at the rise of my belly under our arms and closed his eyes as the image of his own son in my position flashed across his mind.

“It’ll be beautiful.” Stiles continued softly. “Please, let me do this. I’m begging you.”

His father visibly shook before he pulled Stiles against him, holding him tight and almost sobbing into his shoulder. It was clear how scared he was. He was afraid, so dead afraid that what Stiles was about to do would kill him. But the hug was his surrender.

“I’ll be with you.” He promised his son. “I’m not leaving you until you pull through.”

Stiles nodded enthusiastically upon his father’s shoulder, tens of _yes_ ses leaving his lips gratefully. Noah pointed at Derek under Stiles’s arm, peering over at him from his shoulder.

“And you will take _care of him._ ” He warned, earning a confident nod from the wolf. “I won’t be there when he goes back to Sacramento, so you need to protect him.”

“With my life, sir.” Derek promised faithfully, his expression more emotional than I’d ever seen it. “I swear to you, he’ll be safe and healthy.”

The hug squeezed a little tighter, Stiles thanking his father prodigiously until they finally broke apart. They wiped at their eyes and held onto each other’s shoulders for stability before Noah looked to Scott supportively.

“Are you okay to do this?”

The alpha sniffled, pinching away the unshed tears from his eyes and nodding.

“Yeah. I’m good, I can do it.” He looked to his best friend with proud eyes. “He’s going to be just fine.”

Noah put a hand to Scott’s back delicately, circling his palm over it before everyone took a deep breath and prepared themselves.

“Okay… we’re ready?”

Noah, Stiles and Derek nodded to the question, and Scott glanced to us to check that we were okay to witness this. We agreed softly.

He blew his breath out in preparation and held his hands to his face for a moment as though he was praying, hoping to god that this would work out. He took a few moments before he nodded.

“All right. Open the curtains.”

Stiles gave him one last hug before stepping back, holding his father’s hand as Derek slid the curtain open to shine the light of the supermoon in and onto Scott.

The power flooded in immediately, riling up the wolves in Scott and Derek within seconds. Derek was safest behind the curtain, but in the full moonlight Scott’s shoulders hitched and he put his face down to strain against the unbearable urges in his blood.

I felt a soft squirm under Theo’s hands as I sighted the moon, but that was all. It was incredible; my wolf didn’t stir once and my heartrate remained the same, if not only slightly elevated in anticipation of what was about to happen in front of me. It was a supermoon and it wasn’t affecting me.

It was hard to watch Scott, though. He was trying so hard to control himself, blood dripping from his clenched fists as he slowly shifted in front of us.

I looked to Stiles and tipped my chin.

“Lay down.” I whispered. “You’ll need to.”

He took my advice, stepping backwards and lowering onto his bed while his father sat down at his feet. He was watching Scott with vigilance, his heartrate hammering in my ears in his fear for what was about to happen. But he trusted Scott, he knew it deep down that he would never hurt Stiles.

Just this kind of _had_ to hurt.

The alpha’s face shifted, his eyes burning red and his fangs baring as the power of the supermoon slowly trickled into him. He lifted his hands, bloody from his talons, and watched while they healed within seconds, looking up with heaving shoulders and nodding to Derek.

“Hold the gauze under his arm.” He told the wolf through his fangs, heroically controlling himself enough to think clearly.

I was so proud of him, so proud that he was my alpha. I doubted anyone in the world could control themselves as fiercely as he did. He deserved his title, well and truly. He was powerful.

Derek knelt beside Stiles’s head, taking a clean white square of gauze and holding his lover’s wrist while he cushioned underneath his lower arm, ready to catch the blood that was sure to run down. They braced together while Scott slowly walked forwards, sitting down on the bed against Stiles’s waist and replacing Derek’s hand around his wrist.

The room was one big mess of frantic heartbeats and exhilarated breaths, the seconds ticking by before a drop of water ran from Scott’s eye and he bowed his head. His hand trembled around his best friend’s wrist and the water dripped onto his arm below his fangs. Stiles gasped, shaking and waiting for him to do it.

“I’m ready.” He stammered. “I’m ready, Scott.”

The alpha looked up to his best friend, his shoulders almost shaking.

“I love you.”

Stiles cried.  
“I love you, too.”

Scott opened his jaw and just did it – he dug his teeth down into Stiles’s arm.

They pierced through with ease, burying deep and holding on tight while blood spilled and the venom shot into his flesh and veins at once, getting to work immediately.

“ _AH! Fuck! Fuck!”_

Derek and Noah held Stiles down while he cried out, his chest arching and his legs automatically kicking and squirming at the explosion of pain. The wound was deep, just like mine had been. I could almost feel the pain from my memory as the flesh had torn under Scott’s teeth, his jaw holding my entire weight by my arm as I dangled off the side of the building.

Theo’s hands held me tight and I squeezed him, leaning closer into him and bracing as we watched Stiles’s suffering begin.

Scott held his teeth deep in his best friend’s arm until all the venom was in, a hand digging into his own thigh and drawing blood through his jeans as he anchored himself, did his best to extract his teeth without tearing too much flesh.

Stiles’s cries and moans were desperate and overwhelmed as the bite was completed, his fists clenching and his knees folding up while the blood bubbled out profusely and soaked into the gauze below. Scott didn’t even give himself time to wipe at his mouth after shifting back, his hands pressing down on Stiles’s chest and holding his cheeks as he writhed and mewled from the pain spreading through his veins.

My alpha cried with Noah and Derek as they patted his limbs.

“It’s okay,” Scott sniffled thickly. “It’s okay, Stiles, it’s done. It’s happening.”

“You’re doing so well, baby.” Derek stroked over his forehead as it dampened with sweat. “Just don’t fight it, let it hurt. Remember that the pain won’t last.”

“M- _‘m trying-”_ He gasped, his arm trembling violently in Scott’s hand as the first gauze was soaked through. “It- _it burns! It burns so bad!”_

Scott cried, sobbed as he held him down.

“I know. _I know._ It’ll go away, I promise.”

Noah reached for another gauze dutifully.

“He needs another one.” He helped Scott change it over, moving as gently as possible so the wound wasn’t disturbed further. “You’re going to fight through the pain, Stiles. You hear me? You’re not giving up on us.”

Stiles shook his head as clearly as he could with all the rupturing nerve endings in his body. The moans and pained noises sliding from his throat seemed to be involuntary, happening on their own as his brow strained and his eyes started paling.

He breathed furiously to get the word out to his Dad.

“ _N-never.”_

They all held onto him, keeping him still and close while the changes in his body kick-started under the power of the full moon. Theo and I finally moved, my mate letting me go so I could move towards them while he shut the curtains to block the moonlight out. He checked that the door was shut before crawling onto the other side of the bed with me, sitting close while I folded my legs at Stiles’s side and took his hand in both of mine.

Derek dipped the flannel in the bowl of ice water, wringing it out and wiping it over his lover’s brow while he trembled and shuddered from the pain.

His hand clenched and unclenched spasmodically in mine as the pain hit him in quick waves, surging through him with the pulse of his heartbeat. He turned his head on the pillow to look at me, his eyes having a hard time focusing as he was slowly driven to derangement.

I wasn’t even sure if he recognised me until the trembling hand in mine reached forwards, unable to lift up from my lap without support, it was shaking so much. The backs of his fingers fluttered over the babies in my belly, his head lifting and tears shining in his eyes as he held himself sane for as long as he could. He stroked over me for no longer than a few seconds, the tears falling down his temple before his limbs collapsed from the effort and his wrist fell back down to my lap.

I almost wanted to cry, too. I had no idea that seeing him in so much pain would affect me so much.

I looked up to Derek and Scott pleadingly, squeezing the poor trembling hand in mine.

“Can we take his pain?” I begged. “Is there a way?”

They shook their heads remorsefully, both holding onto him in their own ways to support him through this.

“This isn’t the kind of pain we can take.” Derek murmured, his eyes grave and upset as they looked over Stiles. “We just have to get him through it as best we can.”

Scott nodded, his cheeks wet.

“Keep him as comfortable as we can.” He added breathily. “If he’s lucky the pain should let up enough so he can sleep through it. Maybe in an hour or two.”

I nodded slowly, settling in against Theo’s chest as he leant back against the wall. I circled my thumbs over the back of Stiles’s hand.

“Then we’ll wait with him.”

 

So we did. The party went on downstairs and in the neighbour’s yard, their guests screaming and yelling drunkenly while we sat by Stiles’s side and held him through the pain.

Derek shifted to sit against the pillows, holding him in his lap and against his chest while Noah tended to his forehead and chest with the cold cloth. Scott stayed on the mattress at his side, cradling his wrist in his hands and smoothing his fingers over the edges of the bite mark while the bleeding stopped and the wound dried.

The healing had already begun, which meant that his body was taking to the bite.

As the minutes turned into an hour, the exhausted writhes and moans quietened down to deep pants. His limbs slackened and his eyes slipped shut, the pain finally ebbing away just enough to let his muscles loosen. It let him gain some of his sanity back, the incoherent murmurs and whines he’d been slurring out softening and fading away. His hand and fingers still twitched in mine and he still occasionally gasped and gripped everyone as hard as he could when a particularly rough wave of pain rode through his system, but besides that he seemed to have passed the worst of the suffering.

My eyes grew heavier and heavier as I laid back against Theo’s chest. The minutes that passed felt like hours that my lids spent trying to convince me to let them close. The time on the alarm clock only read _9:12_ but to me it felt like midnight.

Theo’s fingers kept up a constant sway over my skin, lulling me further and further into his hold as the minutes went by.

Soon Stiles’s expression changed, his brows furrowing as he tried to roll deeper into Derek’s chest. We perked up at the discomfort, trying to figure out what was bothering him until his hand left mine and clapped over one of his ears, the other still trapped in Scott’s hand.

“ _Mmh.”_ He groaned aloud. “ _So loud.”_

We all looked at each other before realising that he was hearing the party from the neighbour’s yard. His hearing had already kicked in and what sounded to normal people like a distant yell and thump of music, sounded like a chainsaw to Stiles.

Noah stood and moved quickly to shut the window, stopping the icy air from coming in to cool Stiles down but relieving him from the exaggerated noises he was suddenly hearing. He settled against Derek and his hand fell to his chest, his body going lax and his breaths evening out as he finally fell asleep.

The relief was painted all over our faces, that he was pulling through and that his body was taking to the bite. He was going to survive this, and when he woke up in the morning he would be like me.

I watched sleepily while Scott dressed and bound the bite mark carefully, putting ointment on it before wrapping it up and laying Stiles’s arm at his side to rest and heal. I slid down onto the mattress until I was laying on my side with my head in Theo’s lap, his fingers stroking soothingly through my hair as the other men in the room sat back and watched Stiles endlessly.

I fell asleep a minute later.

 

When I woke, everything was exactly the same. The party still raged on outside and the people around me were in the same positions, their eyes trained on Stiles while he slept through the pain. I felt drowsy and could probably still sleep for another seven hours, but sat up when I remembered that there was still a new year to ring in.

The clock told me it was _11:18_ , which meant I hadn’t overslept. There wasn’t even that long to go.

Theo looked up tiredly when I sat up, smiling and running a hand down my cheek before bringing me in for a soft kiss.

“Sleep well?”

I nodded.

“Mm.” I looked back to Stiles and Derek. They were both asleep, Noah almost there while Scott sat against the nightstand with his knees up, still wide awake and watching his best friend. “Has he woken?”

Scott shook his head softly.

“No. He’s fast asleep, can’t feel a thing. So proud of him.”

I smiled, agreeing with a soft nod before letting out a yawn and stirring.

“Should we go back downstairs? It’s midnight soon and I think Derek and Noah have got this covered.”

Scott yawned too before agreeing, slowly getting to his feet and holding two hands out for me to hold onto while I stood up on the mattress and stepped my way off the edge. Theo followed, wrapping an arm around me out of pure habit while we quietly left the room and made our way back down to ground level.

Someone had pulled out the old Wii, and that’s where we found a half-naked Mason and a fully-dressed Parrish when we stepped off the staircase. They were yelling and laughing as they fought each other on Wii Tennis, the rest of the pack either cuddled up together on their phones or sitting back to watch amusedly.

They all looked up when Theo, Scott and I entered the room, all eyes silently asking us about the situation with Stiles.

Scott nodded soberly.  
“It’s done. The bite took and he’s asleep.”

Relief and congratulations filled the air around us, Melissa approaching to fold her son into a hug.

“I’m so proud of you, honey. I’ll basically be a grandmother soon!”

Low, warm laughter hummed out in the room around us and Theo took my hand, drawing me into the kitchen so he could lean back against the counter and pull me in close. I settled against him, as much as the bulge of my belly would allow.

He reached up to tuck my hair behind my ear.

“Are you okay?”

I nodded, leaning into his touch.

“Yeah. I’m good.” I turned to kiss his wrist. “You?”

His eyes smiled with his mouth, something excited brewing inside him suddenly. It was the same as this morning, the very same emotion I’d felt when he laid there and stared at me as though he really wanted to tell me something.

“I’m good.” He responded, but I narrowed my eyes at him suspiciously.

“What? You’ve had this look all damn day, what is it?”

He tried to seem surprised.  
“ _What_ look?”

“The look like you’re _excited_ about something.” I rolled my eyes at him. “What is it?”

He shook his head blankly, a small stupid smirk on his lips as he leant in and drew my hips close.

“I just love you.” He murmured, pressing his lips to mine.

“Mhmm.” I wasn’t convinced, kissing him back obligingly. “I’ll find out eventually.”

The little smile grew, but he didn’t say anything. He held me and we kissed for a long few moments on our own before he poured me a glass of water and nagged me to keep hydrated.

We spent the rest of the twenty-eight minutes until midnight watching my drunken best friend do his very best impression of Serena Williams on the Wii, swinging his hips and sticking his ass out while he swung to hit the ball, and even crying out in the ridiculous, high-pitched _ooh!’_ s that the tennis players all made.

Corey was slumped in the very same armchair we’d left him in, a hand over his reddened face while his boyfriend let loose. I felt bad for him, but also felt utterly thankful that werewolves couldn’t get drunk. I never wanted to accidentally do something I’d regret in the morning, let alone in front of Theo.

At least Mase was entertaining. He made everyone laugh, at least until Argent gently pried the Wii controller from his hand and cut him off from his last two bottles of vodka. There was a whole lot of whining and a pair of pants were discarded on the floor in a tantrum, and Argent was even called _Daddy_ a few times… but he settled down. Eventually.

The countdown started when it was five minutes until midnight, everyone changing the channel back to the news so we could count down with the rest of California. We gathered together in the living room, listening excitedly while the cheers and screams from next door became louder in anticipation.

Theo stuck right by my side, his hand holding me tight and close as five minutes dropped to three. His heartrate rose higher and higher and I turned in concern when it appeared to have no reason to.

“What the hell’s going on?” I asked him softly, worry starting to cloud over my features. I put a hand to his heart. “What’s happening to you?”

He shook his head, those eyes dilated but clear as day. He wasn’t in pain.

“Nothing, I’m fine.”

I frowned at him, because he was very clearly _not_ fine but everyone started cheering and catching our attention when it was two minutes til midnight.

I was about to relinquish my concerns and turn my attention back to the countdown with anticipation before he suddenly took my shoulders, turning me to face him in the middle of the crowd of people in the lounge room.

“Li…” He murmured, his eyes searching over my face almost desperately. “Li, I need to know something.”

_“One minute and forty-five seconds!”_

I watched him carefully, putting my hands to his chest and stroking over his pecs in concern. Something was different about him, something like nervousness seeping from his soul.

“Now?” I asked, keeping an eye on the countdown beside me before his fingers nudged at my shoulders for my urgent attention. “What, what is it?”

He swallowed, his heart racing harder and harder and scaring me before his hands slid down my arms to take my own.

He lowered himself to kneel at my feet suddenly, making me frown and look over our shoes because I didn’t _think_ that my laces were untied – but then the room around us froze completely to stare and those green eyes looked up at me,

and _oh._

_Holy fucking shit…_

My mouth fell open as I realised just what Theo fucking Raeken was doing. I stood still and frozen in time, my limbs turning numb with shock as the question came.

“Will you marry me?”

_Oh my god._

_Oh my god._

**_Oh my fucking god._ **

The entire pack was speechless and the countdown was forgotten. The words repeated over and over in my head, just as the frantic pounding of my mate’s heart did in my ears, and I almost felt sick because it was _real_ , the words had come out of his mouth, in his voice.

_Oh my fucking god._

The breath rushed from my lips.

_“What?”_

Theo smiled so loyally up at me, so hopefully. His hands squeezed mine to tell my body that this was real, it was happening.

“Marry me.” He whispered, his voice not loud at all but the room was so quiet that every single person heard him. “I actually love you so much that it’s literally endless. When I think I can’t possibly love you any fiercer than I already do, it gets even stronger. Every single day I fall more and more in love with you and it’s so clear to me that all I want is to be with you, forever.”

_Holy fucking shit._

I started to cry.

“You’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever met.” He continued, the smile permanent on his face and the water shining in his own eyes as he squeezed my hands. “You’re selfless, determined… you’ve got a soul so pure. You’re strong and so fierce, but at the same time you can be the gentlest, most merciful human being that you’d give the angels a run for their money.”

The tears ran and I heard several racing heartbeats around me, but all I could focus on was him and the beautiful words spilling from his mouth.

“You saw the good in me. You took a sociopathic killing machine without a conscience and you broke him down, made him into a person, gave him a heart. You _changed me_ , Li. You saved me and helped me to learn how to feel, how to love. And I have so much of it inside me. For you and the pack, and for our babies… _god,_ we haven’t even met them but I love them so fucking much, and I would never have the life that I do now if it weren’t for you. Everything I am is because of you.

It would make me the happiest psycho in the world to be able to spend the rest of my life with you. I know we’re mated and that’s as forever as we can get, but that’s in the supernatural world. And you’ve made me human, Liam. You’ve made me human in all the best ways possible, in ways I never imagined I could accomplish. So I want to do this the human way, too.”

I lifted a hand to my mouth, taking his up with it. My lips trembled and my heart fell out of my chest to lay on the carpet for him.

His thumb stroked over my face.

“I want to tie myself to you in as many ways as I can, in all the worlds of the universe so that no matter which way anyone looks at it, it’s crystal clear that you are mine and I am yours. _Always._ Before I met you, I was always the kind of person to work alone, live alone. I didn’t do _people_ and I didn’t let myself make ties to anyone or anything. I hated the idea of having something to keep me in one place.

But I want to be tied down by you, Li. I want to be tied down by you so fucking hard that the earth breaks away beneath us from the weight. And it’s so sickening and corny and sappy but I don’t _care_ , because I fucking _love you._ I love you so, so much Liam Eugene Dunbar, and I want to spend the rest of my life loving you.”

He let one of my hands go to reach into his pocket, drawing out something long and silver that I realised to be a chain. He held it up, letting me catch sight of the carbon black ring hanging from it.

“So please. Marry me.”

I was unable to do anything but stare and cry, the pack around us still completely silent as the countdown reached forty-five seconds.

My mate lifted a hand to rub at my waist from where he knelt – fucking _knelt –_ before me, his eyes bright and full of so much love that I felt like I was about to burst and break down into tiny pieces.

It suddenly clicked to me, looking at the ring on the chain. It all made sense…

“That…” I tried to speak. “The ring… you…”

He nodded, knowing what I was trying to say.

“The day I took you to see home.” He smiled, holding it up higher so I could touch it. “It’s what I got from my parents’ bedroom. It was my father’s. I know you’re not huge on jewellery so I thought you’d want to wear it around your neck instead.”

My brows worried harder and a fresh flood of tears fell at how fucking meaningful this was.

“ _Twenty seconds!”_

“You… you _planned this?_ This whole time?”

He smirked, nodding.  
“It was hard to wait. Nearly asked you this morning.”

_Oh my god._

My mouth hung open.

"When will we even have time to _have_  a wedding? We literally have no time unless we do it straight away…”

He shrugged, obviously already having planned the answer to that, too.

“I thought we could do it at the start of your Easter break, take the week to go somewhere like a honeymoon.”

_“Ten seconds! Nine, eight-”_

His eyes grew wider.  
“Li.”

_Seven, six, five-_

My mouth fell open and I couldn’t speak, frozen and staring at him while the clock ticked down.

_Four, three-_

“ _Liam.”_ Scott called, his eyes wide and screaming, _don’t leave him hanging._

_Two, one-_

“ _Yes.”_ I breathed, taking his hands and hauling him up. _“Yes!”_

_“ **Happy New Year!** ” _

Screams and yells and whoops erupted around us, the entire room turning into one huge celebratory crowd along with the deafening one from outside next door. Fireworks exploded and the TV was blaring with the static screams of every person in LA, the entire country in celebration as 2018 began.

And Theo and I began it as fiancées.

He wrapped himself around me and crushed our lips together, the happiness that burst forth from our bodies being the absolute strongest it’d ever been. We held each other so close, crying and sobbing and laughing into each other’s mouths because _holy fuck, that just happened._

_We’re getting married._

We kissed hundreds of times before we leant back to wipe each other’s tears, grinning and laughing like idiots before everyone crowded around us and patted our backs, hugging us and saying their congratulations while Mason stripped of his last piece of clothing and jumped onto the Stilinskis’ dining table. He’d somehow located the hidden bottles of vodka.

“ _Holy fucking Jesus on a pogo stick!”_ He squealed with his arms up. “ _We’re going to have a wedding!”_

Everyone turned to look, immediately regretting it when the sight of Mason’s junk graced our eyes and caused a riot of groans. Corey, Melissa and Argent all worked together to get him down, pinning him against the wall in the kitchen while Corey tried his best to slide the underwear up his boyfriend’s kicking legs.

“ _I ship THIAM!”_ Mase screamed like a girl. “ _THIAM! I LOVE YOU, THIAM!”_

“What?” I laughed, turning to the Chimera wrapped around me in confusion. “ _Thiam?”_

“Oh, it’s your couple name.” Malia informed us with a laugh. “Mason invented it while you guys were upstairs with Stiles. Theo and Liam is Thiam.”

“Oh dear god.” I groaned, trying to sound appalled but unable to frown because it was one of the happiest moments of my entire life. I looked to my mate, my _fiancée,_ and lifted my brows. “We’re Thiam.”

He grinned even harder, joining our foreheads and breathing me in.

“We are.”

We kissed again, the entire pack unable to do anything but kiss and hug each other in one massive celebration. It lasted a good few minutes before we broke apart and Theo lifted the chain still between his fingers.

“Shall I?”

I grinned, nodding and bunching my hair up to tie it with an elastic.

“Yes.”

He unclasped the chain and reached up over my shoulders to join the ends behind my neck, leaning in to see before he clasped it shut and settled it over my chest. It was the perfect weight, just so comfortable over my heart that it felt _right,_ so good.

Theo’s eyes were filled with pride and amour just to see it, his father’s old wedding ring resting above my heart like a promise that we’d be together forever. It lifted the most incredible emotion in my soul, something I couldn’t put any words to. It deserved an entirely new, incredibly powerful word that I’d probably never be able to make up. But it was there and I felt like I was in a dream, because my life was _literally_ perfect.

Our eyes met and his hands caressed my face so lovingly, so gently.

“I love you. So much.”

I joined our foreheads again, drawing one of his hands down over my heart to rest upon the ring.

“I love you too, Theo. _Forever.”_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you squeal like Mase did? x


	28. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God, this has taken me two months. 
> 
> So this chapter is almost 35,000 words long and I'm not even sorry. It's my way of making the long wait worth it. Thank you guys so much for sticking with me x

Theo’s POV

 

When we woke up in the morning, Li was sore.

He was sore and heavy, and when I pressed a soft good morning kiss to his skin, he roused and groaned. But it wasn’t in the way one would expect – he wasn’t sore from the sex and definitely not from the boys swelling in his belly. This soreness was in his chest, in his veins.

Everything inside him was sore from the internal warmth. From the long-term enlargement, the swelling of every part of him from the happiness. I could sense it in every inch of him through our bond and I knew that I was feeling it, too.

We were both aching from the complete love and happiness that we’d felt, that had surged through us since midnight last night. It had swelled in our hearts and in our veins, making us feel so full and so warm inside that the afterglow was _this –_ a soreness that I would be privileged to feel for the rest of my life. Because it meant that we were okay. That we were _more_ than okay; we were _happy._

I’d done something risky and completely out of character – something that scared me more than I’d like to admit. I’d been terrified of the outcome, but I did it. And it took the best possible turn I could’ve expected.

Li said yes. He agreed to _marry me._

 _Me._ The once emotionless, evil, hateful, ruthless enemy of the pack. Enemy of Liam and Beacon Hills and the entire world. I’d actually dropped to one knee and asked him, and he said _yes._

He didn’t ask me if I was joking and he didn’t say no. He didn’t even hesitate – the only reason he took so long to answer was because I’d maybe gone overboard with the proposal and rendered him speechless.  

He agreed to let me _legally_ bind myself to him, and him to me. He agreed to stand up in front of a room full of people and say vows, make an official promise to our relationship. He agreed to take my _name_ , and I’d never known it before but _god_ was I so fucking ready to hear him call himself Liam _Raeken._ I wanted it more than I ever thought I could.

And it was really going to happen. It wasn’t a dream.

I still couldn’t believe it.

Even as he laid beside me, _real_ and naked and tangled up with my limbs. In my bedsheets in our home, with sleepy bright blue eyes and skin _glowing._ With a belly full of my babies and my father’s wedding ring pressed against his own chest… I still couldn’t believe it.

We were going to get _married,_ and actually call each other husbands instead of boyfriends. It almost didn’t sound like us, but I knew that when the time came, it would. It was just like calling ourselves fathers – we weren’t exactly cut out for it yet, but we damn well would be.

We’d be _family._

I’d have a family, after ten years of not having one. I would have a house of people I loved more than anything in the world. I’d have faces to see when I closed my eyes, laughter and dulcet tones to listen to… I’d have three people with my _name_. Li would be a Raeken and the babies would be Raekens. After being left as the only Raeken remaining, there would suddenly be three more.

And it would be everywhere: on our bank cards and on our mail, on a marriage certificate and on every government document whether it be dental or medical or political.

It would be on the babies’ birth certificates and on the tiny little bracelets they’d wear in the hospital. On their homework and their exams and schoolbooks and most likely even scrawled in crayon on their bedroom walls once or twice, or on the underside of the dining table where Li and I wouldn’t notice it for at least five years.

It would be painted in the damn _stars,_ and it was all I could ever fucking ask for.

It was _perfect._

I didn’t want to sound like a naïve, cliché schoolgirl in her late teens… but 2018 was going to be incredible. It was going to be the start of the rest of our lives together, and I was ready for it. I knew we had some tough shit ahead of us; some very _frightening_ shit that I knew terrified Li and terrified _me –_ namely childbirth – but we’d work things out like we always did and we’d _survive_. We’d make it _._

Most of all, _Li_ would make it.

There was absolutely no way in hell that I’d let him give up on me, give up on _us_ and the babies and _him._ I could never.

We had the most incredible life to live together, and it was a life I saw flash in the reflection of his eyes when I stared into them. His blue was the blue of the sky, a sky that watched over the very same white house I always dreamt of in my future.

The one with the back porch and the couple on their chaise, with the golden fields and a pair of chestnut-haired kids playing with the dog at sunset. I saw him and me and our boys, and I promised myself I’d do anything to make that dream happen. Because we deserved it. _He_ deserved it. After a life like the one he’d had, and at only seventeen years old, he deserved a happy ending.

The mere thought struck me briefly, reminding me that yes, he was only seventeen and _shit_ we were so fucking young, too young. But it was like none of that even mattered, ever could. We knew this wasn’t childish infatuation, knew that this wasn’t just a fling and that it was _permanent_. We knew we wouldn’t wake up one morning in a year or two and suddenly regret the huge decisions and the closeness and the _babies_. He and I were forever.

As I reminded myself of that, solidly and with my eyes hardened at nothing in particular, I caught sight of a flutter. A flutter of dark, stunning lashes, and I watched with renewed love and tenderness as Li opened his eyes to me.

Those gorgeous bright irises glittered at me fondly from amidst a sea of white – white walls, white bedsheets, the white shine of the morning sunlight – and I saw him just as he was. Saw through him as though his soul were transparent as lace: he was the colour in a world made of black and white. He was stunning and striking and so goddamn beautiful, and he was the light of my life.

He made me smile. I let it stretch across my lips shamelessly, letting him see how soft he made me.

I lifted a hand to touch his beauty, to relish in the soft feel of his sleepy skin under my fingertips, the angled curve of his cheekbones, the thick fan of his eyelashes and the heated brush of his lips. I cherished every part of him, memorised every touch. I valued every single second spent with him, knowing I would never stop wondering how someone could be so extremely beautiful.

My soulmate smiled back at me, lazily and sleepily with his hair all askew and one cheek creased from the pillow. He was perfect.

“Hey.” He drew the word out thickly, slowly.

My smile grew.

“Good morning,” I smiled in a low mumble. “Fiancée.”

His smile grew wider before me, stretching with mirth and reaching out to create the most stunning dimples in his cheeks. I touched them with the tips of my fingers while he responded.

“Fiancée.” He said back. His voice was husky with sleep and he shook his head. “Can’t believe it.”

His eyes were suddenly swimming, like there were words spilling inside his mind that he wasn’t letting out. I nodded him on, urging him to speak his mind for me. He took a deep breath.

“You actually asked me to marry you.”

The grin spread over my own lips just to hear it from his mouth. Tingles and butterflies exploded inside my chest because _yes I did,_ and it was happening. We were getting married.

“I can’t believe you said yes.” I responded softly, honestly.

Those eyes watched me for a long few seconds.

“What did you expect me to say?” He reached across to touch my face too, stroking softly at my cheek. “No?”

The smile on my lips softened, turning subtle and thoughtful.

“Not _no…”_ I mused. “I don’t know _what_ I expected. I didn’t know if you were into marriage or if you even thought about it… I didn’t know a damn thing. All I knew was that I had to ask you. I have to be with you, Li – we have to be as close to each other as possible. The feeling in my chest, in my entire body, it wants you so fucking bad. Even though we spend every minute of every day together it’s like we’re not close enough, it’s like I have to tie us together so tight before that feeling inside me can relax. It’s… _I’m so in love with you._ ”

His eyes shone at me, his tear ducts waking up to bring water to his lashes. His fingers stopped upon my cheek and slowly stroked down to my jaw, his head shaking at me as the breathless smile beamed from upon the pillow.

“Sounds like another proposal all over again.” He laughed, earning a laugh of my own too. He wasn’t wrong. “But I know.” He stroked my jawline now. “I know how you feel.”

I would never get tired of hearing that sentence. _I know how you feel._

All my life no one had understood. No one understood a single thing about me, nor why I did the things I did. No one related to me and I found myself truly alone, constantly – which admittedly was what I wanted, but everyone had that human feeling deep down, the one that yearned to be fathomed, recognised. Even me.

Now I had Liam, and he _knew._ He understood. He felt what I felt, and on top of all the things he’d given me – on top of the entire _life_ he’d given me – he related to me, too. He gave me that feeling of comprehension, familiarity.

He gave me absolutely everything.

His smile twitched a little higher on those lips, his eyes shining just that bit brighter as he heard and felt the things I was thinking and feeling. He felt my gratitude through the air between us, through the layers of skin that embodied our souls and separated us.

I heard his heart beat a little faster.

“We belong together.” He whispered softly, to explain. He kept caressing my face under his fingers. “When two things belong the way you and I do, it’s like absolutely everything needs to be done to bind them. To make sure there’s no chance they could possibly separate.”

I nodded.   
“That’s how it feels.”

He nodded back.

“It feels like being one half of a magnificent whole. And when the two halves aren’t joined, they’re _apart._ I know that sounds stupid, but-”

I smiled at him faithfully, in awe because I felt the same – _I knew_.

“It doesn’t. I promise, it makes sense.”

He touched my cheekbone and I touched his. We were quiet in each other’s company for a few more moments before he shuffled closer on the mattress, touching our bare bodies together and relaxing into my chest.

He let out a long, relived breath.

“I said yes because I love you. I love you just as much as you love me, just as fiercely. I know I’m only seventeen and we’ve literally only been together since mid-October…”

“Two and a half months.” I snorted in soft laughter. “Feels like so much longer.”

He nodded with a similar laugh.

“Exactly. It feels like I’ve loved you my whole life.” He nudged his head closer on the pillow to touch our noses together. “We’re young and reckless and stupid, and we definitely haven’t been dating long enough to be getting _married_ , and the idea alone should scare the fuck out of me… but it doesn’t. It’s like you told me in the baby store the day after Christmas: everything feels right with you.”

_Ah fuck. He’s tugging at my goddamn heartstrings._

“It feels so right that the entire world seems wrong – all the stereotypes and morals and social normalities, they all seem wrong. It’s so right with you that nothing that could bring us closer together could possibly scare me away or freak me out; you could ask me to… I don’t know, swap our goddamn _teeth_ and I wouldn’t care.”

The surprised laughter burst from my chest, calling out in the silence of our house and brewing laughter in Li, too.

The sound of our voices together, so loud and happy, caused excited little bumps and rolls to start stirring inside his belly against mine. The babies were still sleepy and tired but they moved just enough to express their pleasure in hearing us both so joyful.  

I wanted to squeeze Li tighter just to hold all three of them as close as I could, but decided against it. Squishing them was the last thing I wanted. I wanted them to feel me slow and gentle.

I shook my head at my mate and brushed his chestnut tresses back, even though they were away from his face and didn’t _need_ brushing back. I just wanted to touch him in the most affectionate ways I could, wanted to be gentle to him and remind him of how much I adored him. I wanted to paint it on his skin that I loved him, and that I was his.

“That’s disturbing.” I warned him. “Just so you know, I will _never_ ask you to swap teeth with me. Just putting that out there.”

More gentle laughter bubbled out from his throat, making my smile impossibly wider with love just to listen to the sound. I loved his laugh, I loved his smile, I loved the way his eyes crinkled at the edges. I loved _all of it._

He touched my chest in his own way of saying it right back – _I love your happiness, too._

“Thank god.” He breathed. “That was an awful example, I really wouldn’t swap teeth. I like my teeth in my mouth.”

“Me too.” I grinned. I held the side of his face and nudged my nose against the tip of his, just for the sake of poking our faces together. “But I can appreciate the implication; I’d do anything to get closer to you, too. I mean it.”

“I know.” He tipped his chin up, whispering over my lips and making them part in lustful anticipation of a kiss. He didn’t quite give me one, not yet. “I just… what I’m trying to say is that I feel the same way you do – like _all_ of it. I love you so goddamn much and you love _me_ so goddamn much and we both know it and- I just feel like you deserve to know why I said yes. Even though you already knew.” He paused before grimacing at himself. “I’m rambling.”

I didn’t think I could smile any wider or adore him any harder, but I did.

“You are.” I tucked his hair down behind his ear. His right ear, adorable and perfect with a freckle on the helix. “But thank you. For telling me why.”

He smiled back softly, his eyes searching my face before landing upon my lips.

He followed when the hand I had upon his jaw drew him in, parting his lips and granting me a mouthful of his upper to suck between my own in our first kiss of the morning. It was sweet and a little dry, our lips unfamiliar with the touch of the other from the overnight separation, and I was fairly sure both our mouths were sour with morning breath but neither of us gave two shits.

We connected the way we always did, bare skin pressing against bare skin and hearts beating for the other inside our chests while the bond inside us flourished and swelled with the pure affection we had for one another. It now swelled with a new kind of affection, one that held the knowledge that we were actually going to get married.

We were going to do this; we’d have to plan it and organise it and actually _do_ it in a matter of three months. Three months was an extremely short time to spend engaged to someone, but Li and I had never taken our time together in the first place. We weren’t _like_ everyone else; we were different and so, so much closer.

Our kiss broke but our heads never moved apart.

He looked into my eyes with the hint of a smile lifting on his lips, his fingers brushing over my jawline.

“One thing, though: I’m not walking down an aisle.”

He made me laugh. Just the idea of him trying to walk up an aisle without getting red cheeks caused a surge of adoration to blossom in my chest – especially with the extravagant swell of our babies in his belly three months from now. He’d even have an uncontrollable waddle going on by then.

And he knew I was thinking of it. He heard my thoughts and felt the love rising up my throat, moving his hand from my jaw to sting a firm slap upon my shoulder in warning.

“ _Hey.”_ He glared half-heartedly, barely fighting his own smile. “I’m not.”

I nodded with a grin, nosing even closer and joining our lips for a soft, full kiss. I couldn’t stop my fingers from cherishing his face.

“Okay,” I relented. “No aisle - I didn’t expect you to, anyway. It’ll just be you and me up there. You, me, the pack and the babies.”

His expression softened and he nodded back.

_It can be however we want it to be._

He rested against me and closed his eyes with his lips brushing against mine, so I held him. I held his body close and ran a hand down over the dips and curves of him, feeling every bump of his spine and the swell of muscle in his lower back. I felt further, sliding my hand over to feel the jut of his hip before my fingers came into contact with the warm, firm swell of his womb from his waist. It was pressed against me, cosy and comfortable with the rest of him as he steadily grew our boys, kept them safe. His skin was extra warm on his belly, like the swelling and the two extra little bodies in there generated more body heat, needed more warmth.

It still brought gratitude and excitement to my veins, just to think about it. He was growing our boys, for _us._

_God, I love him so damn much._

He felt me, just like I felt him.

“I love you, too.” Was whispered against my lips.

The smile wouldn’t leave me, happiness and comfort just overflowing from every pore in my skin.

I couldn’t believe my life; I never imagined I’d _ever_ be this happy. I never saw myself with a pack and a town to call home, with a house or with a partner. I certainly never saw myself as a father and most _definitely_ never saw myself on one knee proposing to anyone. But it wasn’t just anyone. Liam was my mate, my soulmate.

After a life of so much bullshit and hatred, I’d turned into _this._ I’d become human and I was so goddamn happy. For once, I didn’t regret a single thing; all I could do was hope and pray that this wasn’t the calm before yet another raging storm. We’d been through too much to have to fight through another war. We needed our peace.

Peace like what we had right then, both of us drifting off and sinking into sleep together.

Liam and I laid there in a quiet, shallow doze together. Our minds swum in and out of sleep and our breaths elevated against each other’s chests as the minutes drew on, the morning growing older and the sun coming up a little higher before one of us said or did anything.

It was slow and relaxed, so simple and easy just existing together.

Li stirred after what felt like twenty minutes. He lifted his head slightly from its relaxed position beside mine on the pillow and a soft unhappiness seeped out of his scent glands and into my lungs. Immediately I wanted to pull him closer, to take away his sadness because I didn’t like it. My _wolf_ didn’t like it.

“Scott goes back to Davis today.” He murmured to explain hoarsely, sleepily. His beautiful eyes were so glum and I felt my chest aching to fix it. “I don’t want him to leave, Theo.”

My lip worried gently and I felt the familiar sensation of my heart sinking into my stomach. And not just because Liam was upset, but because _I_ didn’t want Scott to leave, either. I’d grown fond of him, I was used to his presence in our lives.

We’d formed a sort of friendship, something unspoken since we started looking for Liam after he was kidnapped. We were closer – he felt what I felt and he saw inside me. He accepted me into the pack and became my alpha, someone to help guide me like he guided Liam and the others.

He was almost like a sibling, just less annoying. I’d grown somewhat _attached_ to him.

Trying to imagine the pack and Beacon Hills without him there just seemed…

“Empty.” Liam whispered against my lips, answering all my internal emotions with one word. “It’s going to be empty.”

My fingers stroked over his skin and I nodded, because he was right. It would be empty.

But…

“He has his own life.” I murmured softly. “He’s got his own future to think about. He can’t sit around and spend his life helping everyone with _theirs_. He needs to be happy, too. College can get him there.”

A soft breath puffed from Li’s nose against my cheek and he slumped into me. I held him.

“I know that, _I do_. It’s just… it’s like everyone still needs him. It’s like, even though there’s no danger, everyone still needs him here to keep them in one piece. Like he’s the glue that binds everyone together. I just… I’m going to _miss_ him.”

I held him, lifted my chin to press a kiss to his forehead. He buried into me and let me suck all the sadness out of him and into me through our bond, my skin absorbing every ounce of negative emotion and disposing of it like trash being tossed over my shoulder. He didn’t need to feel this way. He didn’t deserve to.

“I know, baby.” I agreed against his skin. “But it won’t be forever. He’ll still be able to contact you and I’m sure he’ll visit home as often as he can. I mean, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is coming up. It’s falling on a Monday, so I don’t doubt he’ll come home for the long weekend. Then he has his spring half-term early February, he’ll get a whole week off-”

“Sounds like you’ve been studying his schedule.” Li breathed a laugh, joking before tipping his head back to look me in the eyes in curiosity. “… have you actually?”

I smirked a little, lifting a shoulder softly and enjoying the surprised smile that lifted on my baby’s lips. My heart skipped at his beauty.

“I know how much Scott means to you.” I shrugged. “I may have paid slight attention when he mentioned it to Deaton across the table on Christmas morning.”

Li’s eyes lit up and I knew some cheeky comment was coming, something about how soft and mushy I’d become since meeting him. So I stopped it with a press of my lips against his, earning a startled moan.

“ _Thing is,_ ” I continued quickly, cutting off any smart quips on his part. The smirk wouldn’t leave my lips. “You _will_ get to see him. It’s not like he’ll be gone for three months on-end without any visits. After his half-term it’ll be President’s Day, so that’s another long weekend, and after that it’s just over a month before Easter break.”

He smiled softly.   
“And then we’ll be getting married.”

I smiled back, nodding. _Exactly._

“And then we’ll be getting married.” I agreed. The butterflies returned and I felt his own fluttering against mine from behind our sternums. “You’ll get to see him, Li. And you’re going to be super distracted by your own schoolwork so I’m sure the time will fly between visits. It’s not going to be as miserable as you think.”

He nodded on the pillow.

“I know. It’s not like it’s _you_ who’s leaving.” He touched my cheek. “If I’ve got you it’ll be okay. I’ve always known that.”

I smirked at him.   
“Now who’s being a sap?”

The stroke on my cheek turned to a pinch.

_“Hey.”_

I laughed and rolled into him, getting my knees under me and holding myself over his body while I pinned his hands above his head on the pillow. He laughed back and struggled, his legs writhing and kicking beneath me but only playfully, without proper fight.

His eyes shone honestly with happiness, bright with cheek and playfulness. I wanted to see it on his face every day for the rest of my life.

“I can be sappy if I want to.” He smiled in defence. “Besides, it can’t get any worse than that proposal last night.”

I shut my eyes in defeat, unable to shake the stupid grin from my face.

“True.” My fingers stroked in his own above his head. “But that proposal brought you to tears – that’s some talented sappiness if you ask me.”

He lifted a brow, piercing blue eyes glaring at me in an attempt to seem nonchalant.

“D’you want a medal?”

_Oh, you’re asking for it Li._

I glared, lifting a brow back at him.

It was the only threat he needed before I felt his blood start to sing with anticipation and excitement, his heartbeat quickening as I loomed over him predatorily. He bit that full lower lip and waited for me to devour him.

“You already said yes.” I uttered over him, baring my teeth to nip at one of his lips with a playful snarl. “ _You’re_ my medal.”

He rolled his eyes, but I attacked his lips before he could think of a retort.

He kissed me right back, his hands sliding free from mine so he could twine his arms around my neck and hold me closer while my knees slid out from under me and our hips pressed together under the sheets.

My hands roamed over his body, sliding and feeling and stroking in all the right ways to make his skin burn hot, the blood in our veins starting to heat us up. We pressed against each other and let out soft breaths of arousal, but we were interrupted before my hands could roam lower on Liam’s body.

The interruption came in the form of a _ding,_ followed by several more _ding_ s that indicated someone was trying adamantly to coax a response from Liam via his inbox.

The sounds kept coming until we finally broke apart, an exasperated breath leaving Li’s throat as he was forced to put our affection on hold to pick up his phone and address the interruption with more than just disappointment and irritation.

I lowered down to lay against his side, hooking a leg over both of his and settling an arm around the swell of his belly to hug him close.

“Who is it?” I asked, my head lifting and lowering with the angry heaves of his chest. “Don’t get too worked up Li, we have the whole day for sex. Don’t let one interruption get to you.”

He didn’t respond to my attempt to cheer him up, his eyes petulant and frowning as he tapped into his text messages. He read for a while, the blue of his irises flitting from left to right and slowly easing from their irritation until he finally sighed and lowered the phone to show me the screen.

“Mason. I think he might still be drunk.”

_Oh. This will be interesting._

I settled in and started reading, my hand coming up to cup his on his chest to hold the phone together.

 _Mason:_ _Liam.  
          : Liam Eugene Wolfy Dunbar  
          : I feel like absolute death   
          : And like the worst friend in the world   
          : You have no idea. Corey told me what I did and I’m sorry I took my pants off, and I’m sorry you had to see ‘it’ (kinda) and I’m sorry it kind of traumatised everyone and ruined Theo’s proposal   
          : but that’s just it   
          : THEO   
          : PROPOSED   
          : It wasn’t a dream, he frigging proposed!!!   
          : Theo Raeken, the ex-murderer and former enemy of our pack, recovered emotionless bastard with no soul and father to your babies  
          : PROPOSED   
          : ON ONE KNEE   
          : TO YOU. _  
           _:_ _I have no words and I’m in total disbelief but holy shitting fuck  
          : He did it in front of everyone, just for you. He made himself vulnerable, lowered himself to your feet and opened up in front of  e v e r y o n e.   
          : Like, do you realise what this means? You are literally getting married! Married! I can’t even…   
          : Shit. You’re literally relationship goals.   
          : I am jealous. Officially.   
          : Like, where’s my proposal? I mean I wouldn’t expect Corey to propose to the boyfriend who stripped naked in front of our pack and screamed I LOVE THIAM_ _but still._  
          : I know I’m sending too many messages and I need to shut up but shit, Li! You’re getting married. You’re going to be Mrs. Theo Raeken.   
          : Or Mr.  
          : Whatever you want.   
          : I just. You have no idea how incredible that is. You deserve this so much Liam, and even though I’m dead fucking jealous, I’m so happy for you. And I know you’re going to ask me to be your best man and to save you the trouble, I accept. Totally. How could I say no?   
          : Well you didn’t ask but still. YES!   
          : That’s if male brides can actually have a best man. Cause you know, Theo asked you and he’s like your protector so technically you’re the bride.   
          : But I can help organise everything and pick out flowers and food and decorations and OMG   
          : CAN I MARRY YOU?   
          : Not marry you marry you, but like, marry you and Theo? That would be so cool.   
          : I could wear a flower in my pocket and hold a book and wear a pink tux  
          : Can I please wear a pink tux?   
          : You and Theo can wear white and omg you’ll look so handsome together 

“Does he ever shut up?” I muttered, glancing up to Liam to watch his exhausted expression as he shook his head.

“No. He’s never going to let us live this down. He’ll be raving about it when we’re thirty.”

Despite the annoying fact that I knew he was right, Mason _would_ rave about it until we were thirty, something fond and excited suddenly twirled in my gut.

Because Li talked about the future, the very _distant_ future.

He mentioned us as thirty-year olds, and said _we_. It shouldn’t have given me such a shock but it did, because this really was true between us. We were really going to be together for the rest of our lives, and Li was ready for that. He could see it, could see us together when we were thirty and fifty and seventy and probably even ninety.

Werewolves aged slower and when we were thirty we’d probably still look twenty-one, but that wasn’t the point. We were likely going to live for an entire century together. We had an _entire century_ ahead of us, and that future was something we were both willing to let unfold. After spending so long fretting over the future and fearing it, we were both in a place where we looked forward to it.

To others it might not have seemed like such a big deal, but to us, to _me,_ it was the whole world. We were going to get to see our boys grow up to have their own children, to make more Raekens, more little creatures with pieces of Liam and me inside them. We were the start of something that would remain long after we were gone. It would be the result of the love between us, and just realising it made me feel that much closer to him.

We were going to create this, and it was all because of the flitting spark of emotions that ignited the moment we met. The emotions that grew and grew until we let them take over, let _us_ happen. Let the _babies_ happen. It was so unbelievably incredible.

Liam’s fingers stroked my hair back from my forehead, the beating of his heart under my cheek bringing me back from the future gently. I realised my eyes were wide open and my mouth was no better, my sight fixed blindly upon the dresser on the other side of the room.

My mate’s voice sounded breathlessly.

“Theo?” He asked softly, feeling every ounce of emotion coursing through my veins.

I swallowed, closing my mouth and tilting my head on his chest to find those eyes. _Fuck,_ they were gorgeous. _He_ was gorgeous.

I shook my head faintly in disbelief, letting him feel me. I let him feel the things I felt, see the things I’d just seen and hear the thoughts I’d just thought. It flowed into him and the shine in his eyes grew brighter and brighter as he realised that nothing was wrong – I was _happy._

The smile crossed over his lips the more he realised, and the fingers in my hair stroked more fervently. A gentle laugh of disbelief puffed over me from his nostrils. _Yeah. We’re going to grow old together._

“I love you.” I whispered with a shake of my head, holding onto him and committing his expression to memory. I rubbed his skin under my fingertips. “Always.”

His smile took the last few leaps and created those dimples I loved so much. _I know how you feel_ , his body screamed to mine.

“I love you, too.” He nodded, knowing exactly what he was agreeing to – the future he was going to share with me. “Always.”

I leant up to join our lips and he accepted, opening up to let me taste him.

And that was it.

It was the last of the disbelief and shock purged from our minds.

We knew exactly how the other felt and what we wanted. We knew what was going to happen and this kiss was like sealing the deal, agreeing once and for all that we were going to do this. No shock or surprise was flowing through us, no pack was surrounding us and neither of us had said anything sudden and extravagant like a proposal to throw us off. We had time to think it over, we’d slept on it, and now we were accepting it properly.

Liam was marrying me and that was that. Neither of us would question if it was real anymore, neither of us would wonder if it was what the other really wanted. It was a solid fact and this kiss meant we both agreed upon that. It was just like when we agreed to have the babies, to let this happen and to let them grow.

The kiss said, _we’re doing this,_ and we were both one hundred percent okay with that.

The strange feeling of adrenaline from asking Liam to marry me finally ebbed away, and the adrenaline of saying yes seeped out of him, too. We both deflated and became _us_ again, not just two teenagers who’d agreed to marry each other on a whim. The uncertainty left and the ‘Thiam’ that remained was much more solid; closer and stronger.

And I felt like that was all that would happen as time went by. No matter what happened to us, when we bounced back from the shock we’d only be so much more incredible together. He and I would just keep growing closer, falling even deeper in love and becoming so much more fond of each other. Our bond would keep strengthening until one of two things happened: we died of old age in a century or two, or we became one person completely.

Our kiss finally ended and hazel green met sky blue, our eyes so fond of each other as identical smiles spread over our lips. Li touched my face and I touched his.

“Okay?” I asked, both checking he was alright and confirming what we’d just silently set in stone.

He understood, nodding to both.

_Yes I’m fine, and yes. We’re doing this._

“Okay.” He agreed.

Our eyes and bodies communicated silently. _That’s it, then._

So we went back to normal – _our_ normal, anyway.

I sat up, helping Li to sit up against the pillows without straining himself before worshipping his body and the babies in his belly. I slid down the bed and pressed my hands and lips to his womb while he rested his phone upon the swell above his navel and typed out his replies to Mason.

Our boys said good morning to me, coming up to the surface to nudge and poke gently to my kisses and strokes. But they were still somewhat _quiet,_ nowhere near as energetic and social as we’d known them to be over the past few weeks. I’d expected a firm jolt from our biggest, a single acrobatic somersault from our smallest. Something skin-raising at least. But actually… they barely moved.

For a long, terrifying moment I paused, looking over the stretching skin of Liam’s belly with horror as worry and dread seeped into my blood. Because it wasn’t normal for them, it’d been two days now. _They aren’t moving properly._

My behaviour caught Liam’s attention immediately and he looked up from his phone to meet my scared expression.

“Something’s wrong.” I whispered, suddenly feeling sick to my stomach.

He seemed to understand somehow, his eyebrows lifting from their worry, and all it took was for one of his hands to wrap around my wrist and I was comforted. The breath left me in relief and my tortured heart finally unclenched, slowing down.

It made sense. Li hadn’t said anything, but his communication made sense.

The babies weren’t sick, they were in _slumber._ They were relaxed and they had everything they needed. It wasn’t because Li was happy and had agreed to marry me – of course they had no idea that had even happened. They were unborn babies.

What had settled them so much was _us_. They had everything they needed because we’d been together much more often than usual.

And by together, I meant all the sex we’d been having.

They’d been quiet and lazy since yesterday morning – the morning I nearly proposed to Li. It was the morning that we’d filled with sex and unending bodily contact. It was what Liam was trying to tell me with that supportive hand around my wrist, and I understood. It couldn’t have been for any other reason.  

The babies were _drunk._ On _us._

The worry left me immediately, followed by relief and then by excitement, realisation and fondness. I smiled and so did Liam, soft laughs soon puffing from our chests.

“They’re… we made them _drunk._ ” I laughed, looking down over the belly under my hand. “They’re love drunk.”

_Nudge._

We both smiled wider as our big baby A made the effort to agree with me, even though he was really just reacting to the sound of my voice. _I’m all good, Dad._

Li’s fingers stroked on my wrist.

“It’s incredible.” He murmured as the baby settled back down deep into his womb. “Having you actually _inside me._ It calms them. Like they’re happiest when you and I are as close as we can get. When we’re one person.”

My heart wanted to cry. It wanted to burst, and I felt the soreness return inside my chest. I shook my head in awe and Li continued as he lifted a hand to touch my cheek.

“They thrive on our connection. Our love makes them happiest when it’s at its full strength.”

I broke out of his hands, shaking my head again and crawling up the bed to wrap him around me before pressing myself between his legs and crushing our lips together with all the ferocity of the emotions inside me. I couldn’t help it and he knew it.

He held me and his arms and legs cradled me close while I bit and sucked at his lips breathlessly.

_I love him so much._

“Let’s give them some more, then.” I panted, nuzzling my forehead against his.

His heart only had to skip before I knew I had his permission. He nodded against me and his hands followed the swell of muscle to the back of my neck, nails digging right in when I sunk up into him without any warning at all.

Those bright blue eyes widened with a blaze of life as he felt himself stretch around me, and I swallowed the deep pleasured cry that moaned from his mouth not a split second later. The babies almost loved it as much as we did.

  
***

  
Liam’s POV

  
Heaviness. All I felt was heaviness.

Heaviness from sleep, heaviness from relaxation, the heaviness of Theo’s weight slung over my body, and the heaviness of the slumbering babies inside me. Everything was limp and heavy.

The orgasms had ripped through us completely, one after another and even another. They’d been so intense, so strong and neither of us could move.

Theo couldn’t even move to pull out and separate our bodies, to let the spillage he’d created ooze out from inside me – not that either of us even wanted him to. It was okay, because we were _us_. The mess had never bothered us, not since our first time together. We were together with the babies and we were so goddamn in love, and nothing else mattered.

The heaviness remained, even as we gained movement in our limbs and finally parted for the first time in hours.

It was close to 11a.m. when Theo pulled out. My veins wanted to cry and my soul almost whined when his body left from inside mine, but he pulled me close and curled around me, kissing every inch of skin he could find just to try and ease the devastation of becoming two separate people once more. He knew how it felt and he knew how to fix it, to make the sadness go away.

He sent it running, screaming, fleeing. He purged every negative emotion from my body until only love and comfort remained, and it was how I wanted to stay with him forever. That only reminded me that I would actually get to – because he and I _were_ forever. We were mated, we were having our boys in a few months and we were getting married. We were each other’s in every single way.

I was almost drowsy and weak-limbed when he helped me out of bed to start our day – the first day of 2018 and our first day as fiancées.

My legs almost didn’t want to work when I found my feet and my blood felt like lead, weighing me down and begging me to crawl back under the sheets so Theo could envelop me in his limbs and his warmth and his _soul_ and doze the day away with me. It was the strangest sensation, being so heavy, but I wasn’t in pain. Nothing was wrong.

Maybe it was that I was love drunk, too.

Theo smiled softly at me, nuzzling close and sliding his palms over my bare skin before lowering a lazy, open-mouthed kiss to my lips and sucking the sweet remaining taste of milk from my tongue. I could still feel the rest of it, sticky and drying upon my chest and belly where Theo had spilled it after sucking it out of me.

“You’re beautiful.” He whispered before taking my hands, tugging me backwards with the most stunning, content smile and drawing me into the bathroom so we could share the shower. “So damn beautiful, Li.”

I couldn’t take my eyes off him, not even to watch where I was stepping when he led us into the shower.

The hot water hit my shoulders and trailed downwards, following the new curve of my spine to caress at the muscles in my lower back. I almost moaned when Theo’s hands joined in, kneading and easing the tension that gathered inside.

I melted into him.

“You’re incredible.” I vowed into his collarbone, sliding my hands up over the muscles in his back and arms while the water dripped from my lips and down his skin. “ _Thank you.”_

He knew what the thank you was for.

It was for everything. For this massage. For being my backbone through everything we’d experienced. For supporting me and almost literally holding me up every day. For loving me and the babies and doing everything he could to learn about ways to help me through this.

He was incredible in the way that he was keeping me _alive_. I’d never felt more grateful for anyone as I felt for him.

_“Thank you, Theo.”_

He hugged me, held my body against his under the water and pressed his lips to my throat over and over. It burst inside our chests, how much we loved each other. His gentleness and the beautiful kisses he left over my skin just made my heart swell bigger inside my chest and it almost felt as though I couldn’t take it.

“You’re welcome, baby. Always.”

They were the kind of words that I knew I could trust for the rest of my life. If they repeated themselves over and over in my mind, it was okay, because they were true. They would always be true. _Always._

I let the _I love you_ spread into him from my skin, letting our bond soak my emotions up and filter into his body until he was almost radiant with it. He shone like an angel on a regular basis, but he burned so much brighter when we were like this. He was stunning.

He leant back from my throat, hands sliding urgently up my body to hold my cheeks and trap me in a firm press of his lips. He kissed me without delay, almost roughly crushing our lips together and sucking his own love permanently into my mouth so it could course through me like mine did inside him.

It was a dance we always lost ourselves in, trying to flood each other with the ferocity of our affection until we both tipped over the edge and overflowed with it.

From the outside, people might think we were obsessed and much too passionate about each other. Regular people would look at us and see infatuation, maybe a little insanity. But to us, to the supernatural world, to the people who understood mating… this was pure love.

This was forever.

Our boys barely stirred at all while we kissed and swayed and went about our morning. They remained heavy and relaxed inside my belly while we cooked our breakfast together at the stove, the two of them steadily growing and forcing my belly button out flatter and flatter. It’d started to look a bit alien now, but Theo still amused himself by pressing on its softness and torturing me with tingles when he ran his tongue over it, sucked on it.

I assumed I was meant to be in a lot more discomfort than I was feeling. I was only days away from being halfway through the pregnancy and the stretching of my skin was tickling at my sides every now and then, but Theo almost kept me numb to it all. He took the pain and made me feel good, _normal._

I wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or a worrying one.

I just went along with it. I considered myself invaluably lucky that I had him, that we had a bond as powerful as this. Millions of normal couples would kill to have something like this, to have the ability to heal their partners of the pain and discomfort, especially during a pregnancy. Theo and I were unique, closer than any human would ever dream of being to their lover.

This wasn’t worrying that I couldn’t feel the soreness and tenderness. It was miraculous.

Thinking about our bond only reminded me of Stiles and Derek.

I hugged myself to Theo’s back while he rinsed our breakfast plates at the sink, hooking my chin over his shoulder.

“Hey.” I waited for his attention.

“Hey,” He replied questioningly, turning his head to press a kiss to the tip of my nose.

I wrinkled it a bit under his lips, unable to stop myself from smiling at his tenderness. I held him around the stomach, pulled him a little tighter against me.

“Can we go see Stiles today?” I asked softly, waiting for his reaction. “I keep thinking about him, wondering if he got through the night okay. I guess I just…”

“It’s okay.” My mate nodded, setting the plates aside and turning in my arms to face me with bright green eyes. “I get it. You’ve been through what he’s experiencing, you feel like you can help take care of him to a certain degree. You feel closer to him.”

I nodded silently, wanting to curse him for how perceptive he was. It was like he could decode my brain.

He dried his hands on a tea towel before cupping my cheeks, putting his forehead to mine.

“Of course we can go.” He nodded, his thumbs stroking my cheeks before trailing down to do the same to my lips. “I’ll even bet that’s where Scott’s going to be spending the day before he leaves for college. We can be there to see him off. You can even drive, get some extra practice in before your test on Thursday.”

_Oh._

I’d completely forgotten that we’d booked my driving test in. It came up so quickly in the new year, I was surprised the DMV would even be operating in the first week of 2018.

Yet, I was scheduled in to take my test on the fourth. It was real.

I was kind of shitting myself.

“You’ll do _fine,”_ Theo nagged subsequently, as though he could sense the sudden surprise and dread seeping from my soul. He tapped his fingers insistently over my lips. “Liam. You’ll pass.”

I blew out a breath, shutting my eyes and nodding just to get him off my case. I accepted the kiss he planted to my lips and stepped back, grabbing up my phone from the kitchen counter and stuffing it into the pocket of my sweatpants on the way to our bedroom for a pair of socks.

“I’ll chuck these into the dishwasher and we can go.” He called after me, watching my ass as I walked away. I wanted to turn back around and smack him for it, but what the hell? I loved that he loved my body. “And don’t try putting your shoes on without me! You know you can’t anymore, baby.”

I rolled my eyes in the hallway, heaving a sad, irritated sigh as his warning rang true.

_Like I need reminding._

  
  
Along with the familiar black Camaro belonging to Derek, the curb in front of the Stilinskis’ house was occupied by the red Honda Civic Sport that Scott had bought with his savings last year from working under Deaton at the animal clinic.

Admittedly, it was hot and it suited him. At first I'd been surprised when he drove it home brand new from the dealership last year before leaving for his first semester at college, but it wasn’t like we expected him to make the two hour drive to Davis on his old dirt bike.

My eyes lingered on it as I pulled Theo’s truck up into the driveway behind Sheriff Stilinski’s cop car, still feeling too odd and heavy to make an effort parallel parking in the street.

Theo didn’t question the lack of effort when I killed the engine; he knew just how tired and strange I felt. I was drunk on him, just like the babies were drunk on us.

He took it easy on me, getting out and moving to my side of the truck to help me down before I tried on my own and faceplanted on the drive. My arms remained around his shoulders when I found my feet, a deep sigh flowing from my body as it screamed at me to rest, _sleep._

He held me, held a hand to the back of my head and rubbed the other up and down upon my spine to soothe me as I hugged him.

“You’re so drowsy, baby." He murmured, taking my hand and leading me gently towards the front door. “C’mon, you can rest with Stiles when we get upstairs. I’ve got you.”  

He supported me as much as I allowed him to as we toed off our shoes at the welcome mat, finding Sheriff Stilinski in the kitchen mixing up a coffee. The smell of it made my nose wrinkle and my stomach turn with distaste. Our boys didn’t like the smell of coffee.

“Morning.” Theo greeted Noah as we shuffled inside, curling an arm around my back to hold me to him. “How is he?”

Noah knew he was asking about Stiles.

The sheriff nodded his head, expression serene and much more relaxed than I remembered it being last night. He almost smiled.

“He made it.”

Relief flooded my veins and I leant my head upon Theo’s shoulder as it flowed through me, loosening my limbs even more and threatening to send my knees buckling.

“Is he awake? Can we see him?”

The sound of a toilet flushing sounded from the bathroom around the corner from the kitchen. I blinked, unaware that another person was downstairs with us.

Noah glanced unsurely towards the staircase as he processed my questions.

“I don’t know. I haven’t exactly been inside the room, not since early this morning. He’s…”

When Noah trailed off, I frowned.

“He’s what?” I held onto Theo a little tighter. “He’s not violent, is he?”

I felt my mate grow protective, felt his fingers press against the side of my belly to pull me in closer at the mention of possible danger. His body already started to tense beside me, preparing to become a human shield if needed.

I held him too, sunk into his side both to accept the protection and reassure him that everything was fine.

“No, no.” Noah shook his head in response, carrying his coffee mug to the dining table and dropping into a chair with a tired sigh. “No, he’s not violent. He’s just… _guarded._ Derek…”

He trailed off, unable to explain comfortably, but Theo and I understood very quickly.

“He’s protective.” I let the words out softly. “He’s taking care of Stiles on his own.”

Noah was about to nod when the bathroom door squeaked open. Scott emerged, hair messy and eyes tired until he noticed Theo and I in the room. He lit up some, his expression lifting and his shoulders broadening as the smile stretched across his face.

“ _Hey,”_ He greeted us, approaching quickly and reaching out to pull us in by the backs of our necks. “I thought you guys would visit. How are you feeling?”

Theo and I both hugged Scott, sharing him while my heart burst with relief to see my alpha. I buried my face into his shoulder and inhaled the cosy scent of him, wishing with all I had that he didn’t have to leave for college. I wasn’t sure who his question was directed at, but I answered for both of us.

“Good. A little tired, but good.”

He pulled back, smiling pointedly at Theo before reaching out to pull the chain up from under the collar of my shirt. Scott held the carbon black ring in his palm and his smile grew, eyes flitting excitedly from Theo to me, and back again. I could just tell how proud he was; I could feel the joy singing in his blood.

I was proud too, unable to keep my own smile from spreading at the sight of the ring upon my chest, claiming me and _promising_ me that Theo and I were forever and always.

The happiness spread between the three of us like wildfire.

“Still can’t believe you did that.” Scott smiled in disbelief at Theo with the softest of laughs. “But I’m so glad you did.”

Theo was alight beside me, his arms encircling me and drawing me close as we were reminded once more of how damn much we loved each other.

Scott nodded at him softly.

“Take care of him.”

My mate returned the nod, solemn and determined with a sideways smirk at me. His fingers tickled against the babies low in my belly.

“Always.” He whispered.

There was that promise again. _Always._

I felt my blood run even hotter at the word, as though my body was comprehending the promise and reaching out to Theo to promise it right back. He received it, unable to help closing his eyes and nosing against my cheek to inhale the scent of my skin.

I was sure our skins would’ve melted together if it weren’t for our clothes.

“Have you seen Stiles?” I asked gently through the thick fog in my mind that was Theo. I felt half-asleep. “Noah said Derek’s been protective.”

Scott tucked the wedding ring back under my shirt and patted it, safe upon my chest before letting himself frown softly.

“I haven’t.” He admitted with just a touch of worry. “I tried earlier but even just standing in the hallway… god, you haven’t smelt it. It’s like Theo was when we first rescued you from the Burnetts. It’s this thick wall of protectiveness, possession. I don’t think Derek’s in the right mind frame to allow visitors.”

Theo and I frowned with Scott.

Sure it made sense for Derek’s wolf to be protective over Stiles; he’d just survived the bite. He was one of us now, a werewolf – a werewolf that Derek was in love with, hellbent on keeping safe.

But to smell exactly like Theo had at Aunt Frieda’s when we spent our first few days together after being separated for a month?

They’d have to be…

“Mates.” Theo whispered beside me, barely even audible.

Our eyes widened a tad and we exchanged glances with Scott.

“Do you think they’ve…?”

He bit at his lip, shrugged as he thought about it.

“It’s too soon. Stiles has only just made it through the first night, he…” But he couldn’t continue, because there wasn’t another explanation.

A wolf knew when another wolf was issuing a firm warning to keep away, when he was protecting something, and Scott knew all too well what the scent was that Derek was letting out. _Theo_ would know it.

But Derek had to know that we weren’t there to take Stiles away from him. Sure it was a supermoon still and he was aggravated from its power, but he had to be able to think rationally. Right?

I told myself that he wouldn’t actually try to attack us, but part of me wasn’t entirely sure.

“It’s not like we can wait around until he lets us see Stiles.” I tried to argue, earning a guarded expression from Scott. “You… you _leave_ today, and who knows how long Derek’s going to be like this. Theo took _days…”_ I paused and glanced up at my mate, reading the dubiousness on his raised brows and reconsidering my statement. “Well, he hasn’t really _stopped_ actually.”

“That’s natural.” Scott shrugged at the change in opinion. “You’re his soulmate, the love of his life. You’re carrying his _babies_. He’ll never stop protecting you.”

“And at least I let people _see_ you after we rescued you.” He admitted next to me, agreeing with Scott. He pulled me in closer. “Derek’s not even letting anyone near the door.”

“But it’s a supermoon still.” I reminded him. “It wasn’t a full moon when you rescued me and you aren’t affected by it anyhow. Derek is different, he feels it.”

Scott seemed to finally agree, finishing my explanation for me.

“If they _have_ mated, he’s going to feel an unbearable urge to _be_ with Stiles. To protect him, make him his and only his. Anyone else will feel like a threat.”  

“Exactly.” I nodded.

Theo still shrugged next to me.   
“I could’ve told you that.”

I wanted to roll my eyes because I knew he was being a smartass, but I simply shook my head at him softly and leant into him to ease the old irritated sociopath coming out from his soul. He was open to it, taking a deep breath and relaxing himself while his arms brought my body even closer.

“So Derek’s protective.” He sighed. “We all get protective. We just have to present ourselves carefully, convince him that we aren’t a threat.”

I agreed with him, looking to Scott pleadingly.

“We have to try. You have to see him.”

Our alpha seemed to muse over the situation for a few more moments before shutting his eyes and nodding finally, his hand twitching with the need to run exhaustedly over his face.

“Okay.” He acquiesced. “But we have to be careful. I don’t know what he might do if we get too close.”

Theo gripped my waist in his hand as we made our way to the staircase, waving hopefully at Noah from the dining table.

The first few steps creaked and immediately we felt the atmosphere in the house change.

Derek’s scent was almost suffocating when we reached the landing on the second level, my lungs wanting to close up and my instincts suddenly screaming at me to _leave_ because we were in someone else’s territory and I had two boys to protect inside me.

Scott strained against the pheromones and Theo stiffened, tugging me behind him and lacing his fingers with mine firmly before pressing me against his back.

“Stay behind me.” He murmured, voice low and almost a growl as his wolf ignited in his irises.

I shook my head at his defensive behaviour, knowing that facing Derek with hostility would be like fighting fire with fire. I gripped onto his wrist and held him still.

“Theo, _no.”_ I pleaded lowly into his ear from over his shoulder. My fingers asked with my voice, stroking over his skin. “You can’t appear aggressive or Derek’s going to flip his shit. Let your eyes settle, _please_.”

My mate fought between my pleas and the firm voices in his head, the words of his instincts as they urged him to fight to protect me and our boys.

Eventually his eyes closed, reopening after a few long breaths to grant me the green I’d fallen so deeply in love with. I pressed a kiss to the back of his neck, burying my nose into his hair and inhaling him to settle the thrumming nerves under my own skin.

Scott waited for nods from both of us before Theo’s hand tightened around mine and we all proceeded up the hallway towards Stiles’s bedroom door at a slow, wary pace.

It was like Derek was listening, like he’d grown so fond of the Stilinskis’ house that he knew exactly where our feet were falling and exactly how close that meant we were to the door.

His scent grew impossibly thicker, just that much more stifling and infinitely more protective, hostile. The long, low growl that rumbled out from beyond the door was provoked, warning and irritated.

Theo couldn’t help the squaring of his shoulders and the elevated thrum of his heart as his wolf reared his head, letting out a long, deep breath that I knew would’ve been a growl if he hadn’t restrained himself. I knew his body was almost vibrating with the need to shield me, keep me safe, and the fact that he was holding back earnt him another kiss to the back of his neck. I felt him soften against my front upon receiving the tender press from my lips.

Scott looked to us in the hallway, his eyes also shining with the restraint of his alpha’s red as he heard Derek’s growl. Even half-shifted and more powerful than Derek, he still looked at us with an expression of uncertainty, worry. Reconsideration.

We all knew it would probably be best if we just left Derek to stay with Stiles, but we also knew I was right earlier: Scott was leaving today and Stiles was his _best friend._ There was no way he could leave, part with him after giving him the bite without saying goodbye. If there would be a fight for anything, it would be for that.

We stepped the last few yards, laying our sock-clad feet on the carpet as carefully and silently as possible so as not to provoke Derek’s senses any further, but it was no use. The wolf knew exactly where we were and the growl from before returned, only longer and louder and much more threatening.

Even _my_ hackles raised, sleepy swollen wolf rising from his place inside my soul to perk up at the threat to us, to Theo and to the babies we were taking care of. I might’ve been incapacitated, but I would fight if I needed to.

Theo’s chest heaved in front of me, his lungs expanding and deflating with breaths of defence and restraint as the growling threat rolled over us. He felt my wolf surfacing and I knew he didn’t like it, his weight tipping back against me in a silent gesture to remind me that he _had me_ , that I would not fight if he had anything to say about it.

I pressed my weight forwards in response, letting him feel the distressed little nudges and twitches of our boys inside me as they woke from their slumber to the vibration of Derek’s growls and the emotions flowing from both of us.

The feel of the babies’ stress had a mixed effect on him. It both softened him right up and convinced him even further that we needed protecting, eliciting a stifled kind of groan from his throat that I assumed was half a whimper, half a growl. He couldn’t decide which reaction to go with, but he didn’t have time to before Scott was knocking with featherlight knuckles upon the door.

“Derek?” He called with a wince, bracing for the door to break down on top of us. It didn’t, but another growl carried out almost furiously. “Derek, it’s Scott. I’ve got Theo and Liam here. We aren’t here to take Stiles away from you, we just want to visit him.”

We were only answered with another growl.

Theo heaved a sigh, the muscles in his back starting to tense and swell on either side of his spine under my fingers.

“Derek, I know how you feel.” He called out before Scott could hush him. “It’s like this uncontrollable urge, a primal instinct to shield him and keep him encased. I can’t imagine what the full moon is like adding onto it, but you need to remember that we aren’t your enemies, we’re your _friends._ Your pack. We’re not here to hurt him, we just want to see him. To see both of you. You don’t even have to let him go, you can keep holding him.”

A long silence ensued.

Our heartbeats were pounding in our ears and I was beginning to consider the fact that the silence was deadly, but the smell filtering out from under the door was altering.

Barely, only _just,_ but it was altering. Derek’s guard was compromised, even though it was just a tiny bit. And the silence had to be better news than another growl.

Scott looked to either of us before taking a deep breath and closing his hand around the doorhandle.

“I’m going to crack the door open, okay?” He called to the wolf beyond. “I’ll do it slow, so you have time to control yourself.”

The pheromones strengthened again and I could distinctly hear two heartbeats. One was clearly Stiles’s, gentle and steady if not just a tiny bit elevated while the second was Derek’s, frantic and energetic as he fought with the power of the supermoon and the urges of the wolf inside him.

The doorhandle twisted in Scott’s grasp, squeaking only slightly before he was able to push it open inch by slow inch.

Theo held me to his back, both hands grasping at me while he waited and steeled himself for what was waiting inside Stiles’s room. The babies kept still as though they were waiting with us, comforted with the extra warmth from their father as my belly fit perfectly in the curve of Theo’s lower back. His body heat was almost at a burn, seeping through the material of his clothes and into me, admittedly doing plenty to calm _me_ just as it calmed our boys.

The door parted with the doorjamb by three inches and already we could see that the room beyond was dim, the light from outside stifled by drawn curtains. It was warm inside as though Derek’s body heat had radiated, said heat only making the scents we were smelling that much more potent.

His heartbeat grew wilder as Scott slowly inched the door open further and further, letting more light in from the hallway at the easiest pace that he could.

“It’s okay.” He whispered comfortingly through to the wolf. “It’s okay, Derek.”

No growls came, only thick smells and a racing pulse.

Theo kept me glued to his back as he and Scott slowly stepped inside, creeping with vigilance as though trying to elude a deadly animal in the wild.

And it made me realise that that was what this was. They had to treat Derek like the wolf he was on the inside. The wolf didn’t listen to words or reason, it listened to actions. Smells, heartbeats.

We proceeded so carefully, so slowly that even a deer wouldn’t have spooked before us. We made it far enough inside that the door could be closed, but Scott strategically left it ajar by almost a foot to indicate to Derek that he wasn’t trapped with us. It was silent symbolism saying that we could leave at any time if he really wanted us to.

Once inside the room, we finally caught sight of the couple.

Scott’s breath hitched just a little and I felt sorry for him, but to Theo and I it was expected. To us it was the most natural thing to see in a situation like this.

Stiles and Derek were naked, their skins a contrast of ivory and gold against the white of the bedsheets beneath them. They were uncovered, spooning with their backs to the door in an almost incomprehensible heap of limbs until I dared to step closer, pulling a protesting Theo along with me.

Derek’s body almost covered Stiles’s from behind, one leg hooked over both of his lover’s and both arms wrapped around his torso to hold him close with his chest to Stiles’s back.

With a jolt, Theo and I quickly realised that Derek and Stiles weren’t exactly _separate_ – they were still having sex. There was no movement but when our eyes flickered over the way Derek’s hips were pressed to Stiles’s glutes, we knew. And Scott realised it soon after, if the shudder in his heartbeat was any indication.

We recognised it like it was _us_ we were seeing, because this was exactly what we did. We refused to part after sex, laid together for hours and relished in the sensation of being one person, even if it was only temporary.

We suddenly understood Derek’s behaviour with one hundred percent certainty, and it was then that we finally noticed the underlying smell that had mixed with Derek’s pheromones.

It was the undeniable scent of sex, so strong in our lungs we could almost taste it. We could almost hear the noises that the couple had made together, could almost see the burn in their eyes just from inhaling their combined scents, because those scents told a story to anyone who knew how to read the language.

And Theo and I knew the language. _Fluently._

I gripped my mate, backing into him and letting him stand to guard me once more as I realised the weight of the situation we’d just walked into. Scott must’ve come to the same conclusion, because he was so still that I wasn’t even sure he was breathing.

The movement of Derek’s head caught our attention, and it was the last piece to the private puzzle we’d just let ourselves into.

Stiles wasn’t asleep, but he wasn’t overly conscious, either.

His hips were tilted onto his right side, connected with Derek’s to keep him deep inside, but his back and shoulders were flat on the mattress. His head was cradled against Derek, his chest rising and falling with overwhelmed, tired breaths while his lover nuzzled into his throat.

But the nuzzling wasn’t actually nuzzling.

The movement of Derek’s head was the result of the gentle, long licks that he was lapping along the column of Stiles’s throat. From bottom to top, only on the left, and that was when we noticed the blood.

It came from a bite mark, clear as day and still raw upon Stiles’s ivory skin, being soothed and cleaned by the animalistic licks of Derek’s tongue in an attempt to help heal him. The same bite mark was just visible on the left of Derek’s throat too, although still untouched and bleeding down his collarbones and chest. I doubted the bites were even an hour old.

So there it was, that last piece of the puzzle.

We’d walked in on a freshly mated couple, one still inside the other while he licked the wound clean and anticipated the conception of their children inside the smaller wolf’s newly formed womb.

It was no damn wonder Derek was so protective.

Just to imagine what Theo would have done if the pack tried walking in on us after they rescued me… I almost shuddered. That kind of sex was bond-developing, something so protective and personal and I was sure Theo would have killed anyone in Montana who tried to get near us and the babies he’d only just found out we had created.

For Stiles and Derek it was a little different. Theo and I were already mated before I was kidnapped – these two had only _just_ mated _._ Mixed their bloods and souls, created an eternal connection between their bodies, their minds and their entire existences. They were laying together experiencing the new world they’d created with one another, only just starting to feel all the new sensations their connection would allow, and the three of us had walked in on them.

Theo’s body was rigid in front of mine, firm and solid and trying to shield me as best it could from the possible protective rage Derek could go into. His hands held mine tight, close, and I could hear his heart racing with both anxiety and sympathy for the couple before us. Because if anyone could understand what Derek was feeling, it was him.

But Derek was calm.

He barely even acknowledged that we were there in his peripheral vision. All his attention was on his new mate, on holding him and _feeling_ him, on being with him, inside him and easing the pain from his new mating bite. He was focused on cleaning it up, being as gentle with it as possible and helping it heal.

I wasn’t sure if he was even entirely conscious or sane. I felt like it was only a matter of time before he really realised we were in the room and all hell would break loose.

But the longer we stood there, the calmer the pheromones coming from Derek seemed to turn. The hostility faded and the air turned much less sour.

Derek’s licking at Stiles’s throat stopped, his hips making a few deep, attention-drawing nudges into the younger boy’s to raise a tired moan from him, and then he lowered his head to the pillow to nuzzle into the safety of Stiles’s jawline when he was satisfied that Stiles was alright.

They were a stunning sight together, naked or not.

I knew Scott was too horrified and out of his depth seeing his closest friends naked to agree with us, but I knew Theo felt it. They looked perfect, like they belonged. Yet another couple that was brought together for eternity by the incredible bond of werewolf mating.

Turning Stiles had been the right decision.

I reached to hold Theo’s sides from behind him, sliding my hands forward to hold his stomach in a hug. He knew what it meant when I put my weight forwards onto him: _can we get closer? I want to try talk to them._

His shoulder blades stiffened against my chest and I watched his jaw tick, but only once. He softened up after a moment as Scott approached our sides slowly, as though having Scott next to me too meant I was that much more protected. He covered my hands with his and laced our fingers together.  

_We have to be careful, baby._

I nodded, my chin against his shoulder. _I promise._

I came out from behind him, keeping our fingers laced tight as I pulled him slowly, _slowly_ towards Derek’s line of sight. His eyes were closed and so were Stiles’s, but I had no doubt that he would be able to smell us.

I pulled Theo along and approached the end of the bed, swallowing.

“Derek?” I called, my voice barely even a whisper. “Derek? Stiles?”

Scott shot to our sides as quickly as he dared, eyes wide with something akin to fear as he took my wrist and shook his head at me warningly. _Don’t._

I lifted my brows in argument, wetting my suddenly dry lips and reminding myself that I had Theo. Nothing would happen to me as long as he was there.

I tried a little louder this time.

“Derek? Are you awake?”

He finally stirred.

The large, dark-haired man’s brow furrowed as though I was disturbing him from a pleasant sleep. He inhaled and buried his forehead further into Stiles’s temple, looking to settle down again before I interrupted him.

“Derek. It’s Liam. Are you okay?”

Eden green eyes snapped open and Derek’s head whipped around to spot Scott, Theo and I at the foot of the bed in a three-person huddle for safety. He flinched and his eyes burned blue with the protectiveness of his wolf while straight white teeth snarled at us, a low growl beginning to rumble in his chest.

Stiles frowned in his half-conscious state at the sound and Derek drew him closer, almost covering him with his entire chest. Theo gripped my arms and tried to tug me back, but I fought to keep my spot and raised my hands in surrender to the protective wolf before us.

“Hey, it’s okay.” I tried to placate him softly while he snarled and boiled in our direction. “We’re not here to ruin anything, we just came to see you.”

“Liam-”

I shrugged off Theo’s urgent warning.

“No, let me.” I murmured gently. “Derek, I know what it’s like. You just want to protect Stiles and you _are,_ you’re doing a good job,” _Doing a good job? He’s not a school kid, Liam._ “But… we care about him, too. We care about _you._ Will you let us visit?”

The burning blue eyes didn’t appear to be changing, but the snarling teeth stopped. We were left under Derek’s glare, set jaw squared at us and a slowly heaving chest rising and dipping with his uncertain breaths.

Stiles stirred in his new mate’s arms, but didn’t wake.

“Li, come on.” Theo murmured against my shoulder. “He’s not in the right mindset, we need to go.”

I shook my head slowly, watching the wolf before us and suddenly understanding.

I reminded myself that I was communicating with that: a _wolf._ Not a human.

“Wait.” I whispered, gripping my mate’s hand and drawing him around the end of the bed.

“Li, _what are you doing? Stop.”_

“It’s okay.” I denied.

I had a plan.

Derek’s eyes followed me as I pulled Theo around the end of the bed and up towards the side. He even rolled to sit up, almost compromising his connection to Stiles’s body in the process.

Theo’s fingers almost snapped my own, they were gripping so hard, but I walked until I was beside the wolf I was trying to tame.

Teeth snarled once more and another growl rolled out, but I ignored it and let my own wolf surface to shine in my eyes. The gold flared out for Derek to see, those blue eyes flitting over mine before the growls stopped.

Theo had to let go of me as I started to bend over, leaning down and towards Derek’s face in slow motion.

The heavy breaths from behind me were Theo’s way of panicking, silently screaming at me. _What the fuck are you doing?! He’s going to rip you apart!_

I tilted my head and offered my throat to Derek, getting as close as I dared without totally shitting myself, and I waited.

My heart pounded frantically, matching Theo’s beat for beat, and the anxiety was like waiting for a snake to strike at my jugular. But this wasn’t a snake, it was a wolf.

I knew wolves.

Derek’s snarl loosened once more and he leant forward uncertainly to meet me, inhaling deep as the tip of his nose touched to my jawline and drew down. He followed the column of my throat until finding my scent gland, scarred over with my own mating bite from Theo.

Seconds passed by like years before I smelt the reprieve on Derek’s skin.

He almost nuzzled his nose against my mating bite, drinking in the smell of me before leaning back, eyes lowering as he lifted a hand to stroke slowly over my belly, over the womb that held mine and Theo’s twin boys.

_His wolf remembers._

His fingers lingered on the firm roundness for another second before leaving, and it was like a switch suddenly flicked in him.

The eyes flashed back to green and they widened, looking up over my shoulder to spot Theo and Scott before his mouth fell open, a hand shooting down to whip the bedsheets up to cover the blatant nakedness of himself and his new mate.

“I…” He looked down over Stiles’s resting body before his shoulders relaxed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t…”

“It’s okay.” I promised, parting my knees and trying to kneel as well as I could with the babies in the way. “You were lost in your bond. Theo and I get like that, too.”

He looked over me quickly, a hand lifting hesitantly to the scar on my throat before he met my eyes with genuine worry. His fingers brushed over my skin.

“I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

I smiled, about to respond, but Theo stepped up close behind me and laid both hands on my shoulders from above. I could smell the barely-restrained possessiveness in the air around him.

“If you’d hurt him, you wouldn’t be here right now.” He promised darkly, his eyes still a wary pierce of hazel green. I wanted to pinch him for the subtle threat, but let it slide. Derek wasn’t the only protective mate in the room. “You didn’t hurt anyone, just growled a little.”

Derek was relieved, letting a breath out and lowering himself back down beside Stiles to cradle him with all the gentleness of a father with his newborn baby. His hips shifted before settling tight against Stiles, nudging up close and coaxing a new, pleasured rumble from amidst the pillows.

“Good.” He said on the sigh, eyes flitting over Stiles’s new mating bite. He reached up to palm at the dried blood on his own. “Sorry, I probably look a little gruesome.”

I almost felt Theo and Scott smiling behind me, letting a smile of my own creep up as the hands on my shoulders gave an affectionate squeeze.

“C’mon, Hale.” Theo teased good-naturedly, a brow lifted. “We’ve seen a lot worse than that.”

The wolf almost seemed shy before laughing lowly along with his pack mates, because Theo wasn’t wrong by any means. We _had_ seen a lot worse than a simple bite. We’d seen enough blood and guts to last a lifetime.

Relief slowly flooded through my body and the tension of my uterus around the babies eased at the softening of Derek’s mood. The room smelt a lot lighter and the babies could finally relax; none of us were in danger of getting hurt.

Theo’s hands hooked under my armpits and he hauled me up, giving me the help I undoubtedly needed by now to get back to my feet. I almost felt like a child, being lifted up and losing my balance for a few short seconds, but reminded myself that Theo didn’t see me as a child. He saw me as something precious, something to take care of.

I leant back into his chest with the softest of appreciative smiles, loving the rush of warm affection that spread through my body when his arms snaked around me to hold me close.

I could never get sick of his hugs. Of _our_ hugs.

Derek shifted in the bed beside Stiles as we crowded a little closer, watching his mate with an expression of concern as his hips slowly inched backwards.

Stiles hissed in pain, drawing his breath in through clenched teeth and squeezing his eyes further shut as Derek’s body left his. A low, tired " _Ah,"_ left his lips and he frowned, rolling before reaching up to grip onto Derek’s arm.

“Der… _Derek…”_

Derek held his new mate, cradling him close under the sheets and wrapping his arms around the smaller body with a sad sort of look.

I almost felt their pain.

I could imagine the sudden stress in Stiles’s body, desperate and anguished as Derek left him for the first time since they’d mated, since they became _them._ His eyes didn’t even have to be open for me to know that tears were already stinging behind his lashes, and I felt for him. I really did, because being separated from your mate after growing so comfortable and close… it was like having a portion of your soul torn away.

“ _Derek…”_

I held onto Theo’s wrists over my belly, unable to help the sad frown that fell over my brow at the sight of Stiles grasping for his mate in half-consciousness. He almost looked helpless.

“Derek, you don’t have to…” I tried to get out, a remorseful emotion bubbling up in my chest. Theo’s fingers stroked along mine. _I know._ “You shouldn’t… I know what it feels like to separate – you don’t have to upset him just because we’re here.”

The handsome, dark features of Derek’s face were saddened as he glanced to me but he pretended to shrug it off.

“It’s fine,” He shook his head. “It’s not something we should be doing with you guys in the room. You don’t need to see it.”

“We can handle it.” I insisted adamantly, my eyes flicking to Stiles as his expression grew more anguished. I wasn’t entirely sure Scott would agree with me, but my emotions were taking control of my words. “Please. Your bond’s only new, you need it. _Stiles_ needs it.”

Everyone heard the words I left unsaid: Stiles’s _system_ needed it; he was likely in the process of conceiving Derek’s babies. Having Derek as close as possible would ease the discomfort of the rapid changes in his new body. It was the healthiest thing for him, the most comfortable.

Derek seemed to cave under my encouragement, but Stiles awoke before anything could be done. Brown eyes parted and blinked, blinked, blinked, before he lifted his head and looked up the broad chest he was cuddled against to find Derek’s face.

“… why?” He uttered hoarsely, brokenly.

I couldn’t block out the overwhelmed emotions his scent glands were emitting. I hated how broken he looked and the saddened smell of him was starting to eat away at my heart.

Derek reached a hand up to run his thumb down the curve of Stiles’s cheekbone, a softness in his eyes that I recognised. It was care, pure love.

“It’s okay, everything’s fine.” He tried to calm his mate, but Stiles’s eyes found the trail of dried blood on his throat and chest.

He fingered it.   
“Are you okay? Does it hurt?”

Derek shook his head softly.

“I’m fine, don’t worry.” He touched Stiles’s cheek once more and smiled tenderly. “We have visitors.”

In that second, Stiles frowned in confusion before putting it together and glancing up, over the broad shoulder of his mate, and spotting us.

His eyes widened and flitted between the three of us before he looked back down to himself, to his and Derek’s nakedness under the white and almost see-through bedsheets. He put it together, the reason why Derek had left his body and woken him up. He came to the conclusion that we’d seen it – _everything._

 _Oh,_ his mind obviously whispered in dread as he looked back up.

“I…” He couldn’t speak.

Scott shouldered past Theo and I gently, smiling over his best friend and settling down onto the mattress beside their tangled legs. It was a bold move, sitting down next to them while they were close and naked and so obviously still eager for sex, but if he felt uncertain about it, he never showed it. He just focused on Stiles, the care and affection pouring from him like a flood.

“It’s okay, Stiles.” He reassured him softly, glancing at Derek before reaching up to hold the side of his best friend’s face. “It’s natural, I promise.”

The breath left Stiles and he looked to the sheets, his mind very obviously racing before he seemed to realise something else. His eyes widened again and he looked up to Derek, then to me and Theo, and then to Scott.

“I…”

We waited while he tried to catch up physically with the concepts in his head.

He looked down to his own torso and flattened a hand over his abdomen, and we were quick to understand the process of his thoughts as his consciousness came back to him.

He put together the events of last night and the obvious occurrence early this morning – during which he was bitten and then mated. Being mated meant sex, and sex meant…

The breath left him.

“I should be…” He looked up to me specifically, eyes frantic with realisation. He couldn’t even bring himself to say _pregnant,_ his voice in an anxious, excited tremble. He was almost in disbelief. “How long?”

I was torn between feeling sorry for the poor scatterbrain and wanting to smile at how flustered he was.

Another part of me went immediately warm, hot and fuzzy and spreading through my belly. Because of all the people around him, he was looking to _me._ He was asking _me._

It was like the bond between us had shifted, strengthened, and all because of the supernatural genes that now ran through his blood. The same ones that ran through mine.

Now he was just like me and he wanted to reach to me for guidance.

Theo felt amused behind me with his fingers stroking over the swell of my belly in all the roundest spots. It was like he knew what I was thinking, his fingers swirling over the parts inside me where that fuzzy warmth was spreading. He was silently praising me, rubbing it into me that I’d made a new relationship, a stronger one.

“Twenty-four hours will do it.” I provided finally, nodding after my moment of silent awe.

Excitement and shock lit up in Stiles’s face and he processed the information quickly. His eyes shone at me fondly, eagerly.

“Twenty-four hours? That’s it?” He double checked, looking to Theo and Scott for verification.

“Did it for me.” I confirmed, not missing the affectionate rubs of Theo’s fingers over the babies. I could tell he loved the conversation topic. “One day was all it took. Probably less, if I’m honest.”

A gentle nudge of Theo’s weight into his hips, pressing forward into me was all the communication I needed to know that he was thinking the same thing as me: _we **know** it was less. Those babies were conceived almost immediately. _

It reminded me of how far I’d come when I _smiled_ at that memory instead of fretted. Old Liam would’ve gone pale and still, frightened of the future.

“So…” Stiles brought us back from our silent conversation. “Tomorrow… I’ll be pregnant?”

Scott shrugged hopefully.   
“If you’re anything like Liam, you definitely will be.”

I almost rolled my eyes in amusement. ‘If you’re anything like Liam.’

Because my body always seemed to be in a damn rush. _Everything happens too fast with me._

I hoped at least for Stiles’s sake that his body took its time, unlike mine. I also hoped his babies took their time, too. There was nothing more difficult for a male to grasp than watching his belly swell three centimetres a week – take it from someone who _knew._

The relief outweighed the nervousness in Stiles’s expression as he thought about it; his wish was finally coming true. He’d been given the bite, mated, and now in a matter of hours he would be pregnant. I still couldn’t quite grasp that it was happening, but it looked so good on him. The happiness of his new future brightened him up like I’d never seen anything else do before.

Plus the look on Derek’s face was almost priceless. It was the perfect picture, the adoration on his lips and the fond, proud, totally-in-love shine in his eyes. He was just like another Theo.

And Theo even seemed to notice the same thing, if the little smile I could feel over my shoulder was any indication. It was like looking at us a few months ago, younger and still so new to the world of mating but totally in awe of it and one hundred percent in love with it.

Seeing both how far Theo and I had come and how new and beautiful this was for Stiles and Derek – I almost wanted to smile until I cried. But I’d already done enough of that since being proposed to.

Stiles seemed comfortable against Derek’s body under the sheets and didn’t mind the extra crowding from Scott’s seat at his thighs, but soon he was pulling away slightly as his cheeks flushed red with his throat.

A frown fell over his brow and he looked up to the ceiling fan, circling frantically above us despite it being the middle of winter outside.

And then he inhaled, deep and long, and the frown deepened. He inhaled again and again until he followed its direction to me. To _Theo_ and me.

“What is it?” Scott encouraged openly, taking one of his best friend’s hands and squeezing. “Tell us what you feel.”

Stiles swallowed.

“Feels like I’ve got a fever.” He explained slowly, kicking the single sheet as far down his hips as he dared with nothing but naked flesh waiting beneath. “I’m _hot_ and everything hurts a little. And I can smell things… _weird_ things.”

Scott glanced to us before looking back to Stiles with a nod.

“What kinds of things?”

Derek started brushing his mate’s hair back from his forehead. It was a whole lot shorter than mine or Theo’s and didn’t even _need_ brushing back, but the gentle stroke of Derek’s fingertips upon his temples and hairline seemed to calm him, seemed to soothe his body and give him a sense of coolness despite the fact that the room temperature hadn’t changed a bit.

It made me want to smile, because that meant their bond was already starting to strengthen – they already had the ability to soothe each other with a single touch.

“Things I’ve never smelt before, I…” Stiles answered Scott’s question unsurely, lifting a dubious brow. “Is… is it possible for _emotions_ to have smells?”

It was the question both Scott and Derek were waiting for, both of them exchanging glances before breaking into soft identical grins. Stiles’s hairline received more adoring strokes while Scott nodded.

“It is now.” He confirmed for his confused best friend. “Werewolves can smell everything about another living creature, including emotions. Good emotions are different, they smell sweet. Bad emotions are like an odour, an off smell that tells you something’s wrong.”

Stiles seemed to think for a moment, his expression quizzical before he seemed to understand.

“Malia always used to tell me that I smelled like shit. Cause of my anxiety.”

We all fought our grins, because that was so Malia. But we tried our best not to laugh because the last thing we wanted was to make Stiles feel like some new little puppy to be adored and doted on.

Scott nodded with the widest closed-mouthed smile he could manage. Showing teeth would indicate laughter, and if any of us laughed we would never hear the end of it.

“That’s what anxiety’s like.” He explained as evenly as he could. “It’s sour in your lungs, a really particular smell. A lot like fear.”

Stiles rubbed a hand over his face with a sigh, looking to the ceiling and dropping his head into the pillow.

“Am I going to learn all these smells?”

Scott nodded.   
“Eventually.”

A few seconds went by before Stiles finally tilted his head back in our direction, addressing the reason he’d stared at us after smelling the air in the first place. His expression was blank and observational as he looked over our embrace.

“You two reek of romance. Like your goddamn souls are smiling.”

I wanted to laugh but bit down on the sound as it came up, resulting in a stifled kind of snort that encouraged one from Theo, too. His arms brought me in closer and his chin perched on my shoulder, our cheeks brushing while his shoulders hiked in soft laughter.

I leant into him and grinned too, because Stiles’s nose only wrinkled as we stood closer. Our scents were probably suffocating him with comfort and affection the more our skin touched.

“God, is there a way to turn it off?” He groaned, turning away to distract himself from our joint smell. “It’s _strong._ ”

Derek chuckled at his mate and continued to stroke over his forehead.

“It gets easier to ignore. You’ll get used to it after a few days.”

The younger boy shook his head in disbelief.

“Do they _always_ smell like that?”

I rolled my eyes – we weren’t _that_ bad.

Scott looked towards us thoughtfully, his smile soft as he observed us and the swelling of my belly under Theo’s arms.

“Let’s just say I’ve known them to smell a lot worse.” He answered gently, and Theo and I both understood what he meant immediately.

We’d been through some truly awful shit. Our souls had once smelt anxious, and they’d once smelt completely broken, shattered into a million pieces. For us to smell suffocatingly like romance and happiness was a blessing in itself.

Stiles seemed to grasp it too, his expression softening from its scowl as he learnt to appreciate the positive pheromones seeping out from us instead of choking on it. He and Derek would smell like us in no time at all and I knew that he knew it.

The room was quiet before he sighed, taking a deep breath and shifting to slowly sit up against the headboard of the bed next to Derek with a soft wince as the sore muscles in his new body protested inside him.

“I’ll need to call your Mom.” He said to Scott, tipping his head back tiredly as the exhaustion still rode through him from the night he’d just gone through. “Ask if she can get me a blood test tomorrow or the day after, see if I really got pregnant or not. You can tell that early, right?”

Everyone looked to me, because no one else really knew. No one knew how the hormones worked, no one heard the things Edith used to ramble on about in the underground lab with me.

I bit my lip and nodded to answer his question with 95% certainty.

“I think so. After two days the hCG should’ve multiplied in your blood. Melissa should find it.”

Stiles stared.   
“hCG?”

Scott gave a soft laugh, squeezed his best friend’s hand again fondly.

It felt surprisingly nice not to be the one in Stiles’s position; it’d been me for so long, not knowing what would happen or what certain things meant. I knew something he didn’t and it was relieving to be able to relax while someone else explained.

“Human chorionic gonadotropin, it’s a pregnancy hormone.” Scott educated Stiles gently. There was a certain shine in his eyes, something unafraid and excited as he spoke about Stiles’s future. “It multiplies by the hundreds when you’re pregnant and usually starts dropping back again when you hit twelve weeks. Mom will find it in units in your blood test and it’ll help her determine how long you’ve been pregnant, maybe even how many babies you’re having.”

Stiles blinked before nodding slowly, trying to commit the new and strange information to memory before glancing down to his bare, flat stomach. His hands slid up from the bed at his sides, reaching past his hipbones to stroke over the skin thoughtfully.

He looked up to find Derek’s eden eyes.

“Is it weird that I can kinda feel it?” He murmured softly, unsurely. “I can _feel_ that something’s different, like there’s… a part of you in me. Maybe it’s the mating thing, I don’t know…”

Derek nodded down to his new mate with the softest of frowns over his brow as he agreed.

“I feel it, too.” He said. “It’s hard to tell, but it’s like we’re…”

“Closer.”

The old Theo would’ve been gagging and dry-reaching at the prospect of these two finishing each other’s sentences like an old married couple, I just knew it.

I could even almost smell his eye-roll from over my shoulder, could feel the way his blood screamed _get a fucking room._ But he kept it to himself, kept it between us, because he knew just what it was like.

He and I did it all the time, finished each other’s sentences and even had damn conversations without having to utter a single word. We were the definition of corny and sickeningly in love, but I knew neither of us would ever change any of it, because it was what made us. And he and I were all that mattered, ever.

“Time will tell, don’t you worry.” Scott patted Stiles over his hand, holding it and watching as their fingers gently twined and played together over his stomach. “I just feel bad that I can’t be here. You have to text me, yeah? I want you to keep me updated on everything.”

Stiles nodded and a soft smile grew, his brown eyes lightening as Scott turned to Theo and me and pointed.

“You too.” He insisted seriously, eyes begging us. “You need to tell me stuff. If I can’t physically be here for you guys, I want you to be able to let me in on things. Tell me how your day is and who did what and which baby kicked. I want to know.”

The smile spread across my face too, my heart both swelling with love and aching with distress because Scott was the best alpha in the world, but he was going back to Davis.

I hated how bittersweet it felt inside my chest but Theo’s fingers gave a gentle nudge to my belly, reminding me that he was _here._ And he sucked all the sadness away.

“We will.” I nodded to Scott softly, leaning back into Theo with gratitude and letting him hug me to him firmly. _I’m here, baby._ “I promise.”

Scott grinned.   
“Every day. You gotta tell me.”

I fought a laugh, nodded again.

“Every day.”

The room fell silent for a few indefinite moments, during which the emotions in the room started changing drastically. It happened so strongly, so quickly, that I could barely get a handle on it before my heartrate was rising.

Scott was filled with excitement and remorse.

Stiles and Derek were tired, both feeling a little confused and trying to adapt to their new bond. They were also fighting the little screaming voices in their heads to _be together_ , because we interrupted their bonding time and they hadn’t been ready to separate. Their scents grew thicker and the want their bodies had for each other got stronger.

We could smell it and feel it, but the worst part was that Theo and I were the exact same.

Since last night, since Theo’s proposal and my _yes_ , the only thing our wolves and the babies wanted was _us_. They wanted nothing but us, together, one hundred percent of the time. Including now. In this room, with this new mated couple and their need for sex swirling in the air. It was contagious, sinking into us and reminding our bodies that they wanted the exact same thing as Stiles and Derek.

Our bodies grew hot and our heartrates pounded faster, our skin burning and our wolves almost howling on the inside just begging us to join again and _stay_ that way, because it was how we belonged.

Soon the room was one large hurricane of pheromones and chemosignals, Scott getting caught in the middle as two mated couples yearned for each other on either side of him. Stiles wanted Derek, and I wanted Theo.

Just the idea that neither of us could get what we needed until later mixed with the upset hormones in my blood, turning the heated feeling in my belly sour and bringing devastated tears to my eyes in twenty very quick seconds that had Scott glancing to us in shock, sadness. I couldn’t even control it and Theo reacted quickly, his hands covering me to soothe the hormones under my skin.

Scott’s mouth opened but nothing came out, because any questions he could’ve asked would have been stupid. He knew what was happening and he could smell what we all needed.

Derek, Stiles, Theo and I: our wolves were all screaming _sexsexsexsex_ and there wasn’t anything we could do about it, because it was in our blood. It was in our bones and in the very cells that connected us as mates.

Our poor alpha looked between the four of us, his eyes darting back and forth as heartrates rose and body heat burnt hotter, the smell of distress and panic slowly filling the room and overwhelming everyone involved.

Derek’s fingers almost dug into Stiles’s chest where he held him as the hunger in his gut grew, and the younger boy’s eyes closed as his breaths became more laboured.

Theo’s hands trailed to hold my hips in a firm squeeze, sliding away from my belly to protect our boys from the rough grip. His chest molded against my back and the tip of his nose touched to the base of my throat at my left, his lungs expanding as his jaw set and he inhaled the powerful scents in my skin with closed eyes.

I almost shuddered with want, my knees threatening to give out as the bolt of heat shot down my spine to my cock. Theo’s actions spoke into my ear. _Need you, baby._

The restraint in the room was the only thing holding it together.

“Guys…” Scott looked between us with worry. “How do I help?”

I felt Theo’s brows lifting, shutting my eyes as his hot breath blew over my collarbones.

_God, I want._

_I want, I want, I want._  

“By leaving.” He suggested to Scott, not unkindly. “A half-hour should do it.”

My eyes widened – he was being so blunt and honest, and he was _serious._

It felt rude and I wanted to say no, because this was not _normal_ and there was no way that we should even be considering it. But the burn in my blood and the feel of Theo so close yelled over that thought, struck it down and turned it to dust. My own wolf growled at me and I kept quiet, sinking even further into Theo’s touch as the need for him burnt hotter in my veins.

Scott looked at us bewilderedly, his eyes asking _are you seriously going to…?_ but Derek answered before either of us could.

The low growl left his throat, vibrating in the floor and creeping up our anklebones, but not in a hostile manner. He wasn’t being threatening, he was warning Scott to save his eyes and escape the room before something happened that none of us could control. And he wasn’t exactly wrong in doing so.

I could feel the way Theo’s teeth were grit behind his lips, could feel the laboured little puffs of his breaths as he tried to rationalise and keep himself sane – because none of us _felt_ sane.

We were almost in an uncontrollable rut and it definitely made me nervous to think that we wouldn’t even be able to leave the room before any sex started. Whether it was between Theo and I or Stiles and Derek wasn’t something I wanted to dwell on.

Scott looked uncertainly between us all, obviously unwilling to leave but knowing it was best for his mental health and stability. He ran a hand carefully over Stiles’s stomach in affection before standing from the bed, taking a step backwards and biting a lip.

“Are you sure? I mean, are you going to be alright?”

 _I don’t even know,_  I thought inwardly with a nervous twist in my belly.

Theo’s fingers spread over the skin of my hips and I felt him nod into my throat. 

“We’ll be fine, Scott.” He reassured our alpha with a smooth gentleness to his tone. My eyes closed once more in bliss when I felt his voice humming into my mating bite. “I promise. Go save your eyes before we ruin them.” 

Something in me knew Scott would’ve laughed if the situation weren’t so thick with mated pheromones. He only took one more glance to Stiles and Derek before quickly approaching us, holding a hand to the side of Theo’s head and leaning in to press a firm kiss over my brow. 

I leant into it, letting out the breath I’d been holding as relief and calmness flooded through me. This was happening, but Scott was okay with it. Everything was somehow fine. 

I felt a few unfamiliar knuckles brush over my belly before our alpha was stepping back, giving us our space and sending lingering looks over his shoulder as he finally opened the door and let himself out. 

The handle clicked back into place after him with a definitive echo, and then Scott was gone. 

Movement happened on the bed before us immediately, a blurred shift of limbs beyond my lowered lashes. Theo took tighter hold of me as Stiles and Derek fell into the tug and pull of their instincts and emotions.

All it took was a shuffle of Derek’s hips and a guiding hand, and Stiles was gasping. His hands gripped at Derek, at the sheets beneath them, and his head tipped back. A fucked-out, strangled moan pooled from his lips and saturated the room around us. 

“Uhhn,  _fuck... Derek.”_

My hips almost thrust forward, reacting to the noise instinctually as another bolt of heat shot down my spine. Derek wanted to growl, but Stiles softened him. So the growl came out as more of a whimper, a relieved groan that was quickly followed by the familiar sound of hips meeting hips, snapping and colliding as they started to fuck. 

“Pleasepleaseplease,” Stiles whimpered lowly into Derek’s jawline like a plea, like a mantra. “Please, deeper.  _Please_.” 

_God. They’re having sex, with us in the room. They’re having sex and they aren’t stopping._

“Baby.” Theo murmured against my skin, catching my attention when his hands slid back from my hips to hold the babies in his palms. He felt incredible, so secure and so _good._

I sucked air in with an almost-gasp, unaware that I’d been holding my breath since Derek and Stiles started fucking. The thickened scent of sex filled my nostrils and I almost sagged helplessly against Theo’s chest, almost sunk and melted at the lust that flooded my veins. 

_God, please._

I shook my head softly, weakly as I held onto his wrists. 

“N-not here.” I begged him gently, nuzzling my cheek sideways into his own. “We... we have to go. Need privacy.” 

I wasn’t even entirely sure if I was talking about Stiles and Derek needing the privacy or  _us_ , but it worked both ways. Theo and I becoming one person, joining together, was something only he and I shared. It was us, and us only. I wanted to keep it that way. 

Having sex with Stiles and Derek in the room was like involving them, and the greedy, possessive wolf inside my chest growled at the idea of sharing our mate. Theo was ours, our soulmate and the father of our babies and we wanted him and his wolf all to ourselves, forever. 

He seemed to agree with me, strong enough to keep a hold on his willpower. He nodded to my request, nose brushing just under my jaw as his hands caressed the boys in my belly.

His fingers found mine and they tangled together, tugging and pulling and we managed to shuffle towards the door as the sounds from the bed became louder, more pronounced. The slap of hips against ass cheeks, the groans and grunts from Derek as he claimed and made love to an overwhelmed and mewling Stiles. The protests of the bed springs and the rustling friction of skin on bedlinen. It was almost too much, but Theo pulled us out the door and put the wood between us before it could take over us. 

His head dropped to my shoulder and we stood in the hallway panting for a few long seconds, still spooning and weak-legged as we tried to collect ourselves, pick our lust-filled jaws up off the floor. 

Blocking out the scents from Stiles’s room didn’t stop us, though. It did nothing at all. 

We turned, eyes almost ablaze for each other as Theo took my hand in his, tugging me along and trying door after door until I directed him to the right one.

We clambered into the bathroom and the door was shut behind us, the lock clicking as I turned to start pulling Theo’s shirt up his back from behind before he was even done securing us in there. 

He let it come up and off without a single complaint, quickly turning and letting his hands find my hips as he backed me up, joining our lips and crushing us together like our bodies so desperately craved for. 

His kisses were deep, so perfect and enthusiastic and strong. I loved every single suck of his lips, my head tipping back when I hit the wall and a brief moan of contentedness leaving my throat as he ravished me in affection. I held onto him, looped my arms around his neck as his hands roamed high and low, moving between my cheeks, throat, hips and belly. 

I found it incredible how his touches still gave me a racing heart and butterflies. 

“God, I love you.” I managed to whisper against his lips between kisses, holding onto him and going dizzy with the pure sweet scent of him when I inhaled. 

I felt his smile stretch open between my lips before he pulled back, joining our foreheads and leaning into me. 

“I love you too, baby.” He indulged in the words so comfortably and honestly that I wanted to fall into him, to let his body swallow mine whole. His eyes winked green into mine. “So damn much. Always.” 

 _Always_. Our promise. 

We both sighed heavily, slumping further against the wall while our hearts raced and our wolves whined for more contact. Theo’s lips met with my throat and I felt his hips almost dancing against mine, wanting to circle and thrust but clearly being restrained. 

I threaded my hands through the length of his hair, just revelling in having the privilege to touch him. He was so beautiful. 

“What’s happening to us?” I asked almost breathlessly. “We... it’s like we’re...” 

The low laugh came from the crook of my neck and he lifted his head to grin at me. 

“We can’t stop having sex.” He finished the sentence for us. “Like we’re addicts.” 

I nodded, my hips squirming against his restlessly to beg for more friction. He dipped in to kiss me, letting his hips roll and stroke into mine to grant the request, almost letting a relaxed groan out into me. 

“Why, though?” I panted, blunt fingernails making a home in the swell of his shoulders. “It’s... it’s so sudden.” 

Those shoulders shrugged gently. 

“We’re getting closer.” He suggested, open-mouthed as he pressed lazy kisses over my chin and cheeks and nose. “We just keep getting deeper and deeper into this, keep falling in love over and over and we just... maybe this is just how much we need each other.” 

I processed it, thought on it while he kissed his way across my entire face. My fingertips stroked the golden skin of his shoulders softly. 

“The boys are getting bigger, too.” He added more gently, accentuating his words as a palm slid down to rub over the babies in question. “They’ve gotta want it as well, they draw us together. Maybe this is what your body needs from mine, to keep you comfortable. Stop the discomfort. You never know with us.” 

I smiled, holding his face and looking over the beauty of him before leaning up into another kiss. 

“You’re right.” I agreed softly. “Our relationship is the most unpredictable thing I’ve ever seen.” 

The grin that he returned made me light up with love and happiness. He was gorgeous. 

“Definitely. And I love every single part of it.” He leant in close again, flattened my back against the wall. “Now c’mere. Let me have you.” 

I nodded willingly, my body pliant with him against me while my heart burnt with love and comfort. 

I’d let him do anything. 

He sucked my upper lip into his mouth while I sucked on his lower, my fingers trailing down his chest to find and undo the zipper on his jeans. He let me with a low encouraging moan into my mouth, bucking his hips into my palms as I got a hand on him, pulled him out of his underwear. 

His mouth opened against mine, lower lip still trapped between my teeth as his breath left him in an open groan and his hips thrust into my hand while I squeezed and pumped his fattening length. He was smooth and burning hot in my palm, and I could feel his pulse through the artery underneath the head. I closed my eyes at the plea inside my belly to have that inside me, to feel that pulse against the insides of my stomach. To feel my own heartbeat alter to match it like it always did. 

I let his lip go to breathe out my own impatient noise. 

“We...  _please_.” I tried, and he understood. 

His hands left their home on my cheekbones, sliding down to fumble with the drawstring of my sweats under the curve of my belly. He shuffled the waist of them down my thighs, not even having the patience to get them all the way down before snatching up my hips and smothering our cocks together in a press of skin and heat. 

It had only been an hour or two since I’d last felt us pressed together, but the relief that eased my muscles as we connected made it feel like days had passed. 

“How...” I gripped his hair, tipped my head back breathlessly to let him nip at my throat. “How do you want me?” 

The wetness of his kisses flared with heat when he exhaled against my skin with a moan. 

“Here.” 

The hands he held on my hips started to turn me, putting my back to the bathroom mirror and backing me up until my ass hit the sink counter. I was about to remind him that my mobility was too impaired now to have countertop sex, but then he turned me around. 

I found myself face-to-face with a flustered, red-cheeked and heavy-lidded Liam Dunbar, my palms bracing on the counter before me to catch my weight as I took myself in. 

 _Oh_.  _Wow_. 

Theo-smothered Liam was different. He was comfortable and lustful and  _glowing_ , bright and full of colour looking back at me, and I realised that we’d never done this. We’d never watched ourselves have sex. 

This was a first, like countless other firsts Theo and I had had together. 

The breath left me the longer I stared at us, the dark brunette of my mate’s hairline where his face was buried in the crook of my neck and his teeth grazing over the mating scar he’d given me. We were hot and heavy, but it was pretty. 

We were gorgeous together. I’d never really noticed it much beyond the selfies we took at Aunt Frieda’s that one time, and it still hit me in the face just as fiercely. We were like two puzzle pieces slotting together seamlessly - and when my eyes directed down to the obvious curve of my belly under my shirt, it only brightened the picture. 

How could we have never seen this coming? All that time we’d spent as enemies, pretending to hate each other. How had no one seen how perfect we were together? How good this was? 

How did  _we_  not see? 

“We...” I panted, watching as my own eyes narrowed lazily at the sharp bite of Theo’s incisors on my jugular. My fingers laced with his on the countertop. “We’re beautiful.” 

His head lifted just enough for his lashes to part, for the stunning flare of his eyes to meet mine in the reflection of the mirror. The smile he wore as he looked over us was like looking at the sun.  _Yes, we are._

He lowered a kiss to the trapezius muscle above my left collarbone, watching in the mirror as he placed it on my skin. 

“I want you to see.” He lifted a hand away from one of mine to hold it to my belly, supporting my weight and holding me still as he ground his hips forward into me. I watched my expression falter, turn desperate as I felt him press in against my behind. “I want you to watch yourself while I fuck you. I want you to see how beautiful you are when I’m inside you. You need to see it.” 

I saw black as I squeezed my eyes shut, succumbing to the want as he thrust again, unable to keep from arching my back and pressing myself into him. My fingers gripped his on the basin and I nodded, mouth hanging open. 

“Okay.” 

With my permission, his lips lowered to my throat again to nip and suck at the most sensitive places until the skin darkened with hickeys, patterned little purple marks that left evidence that he’d been there. They claimed me as his.

I soon forgot where we were, whose house we were in and that there was another couple clearly audible moaning and crying out down the hallway. It was like thick clouds filled my head, blocking all my senses to anything except for Theo and I. 

The two of us were all I saw when I opened my eyes again, just us leaning pressed together against the sink in a tangle of hair and kisses and arms. 

And lactation. 

At first I thought it was the light, but upon second glance my eyes widened, peering into the mirror and then down to the spreading dots on my shirt over my nipples. My hands abandoned the edge of the sink, gripping onto the hem of my shirt and holding it out flat and  _fucking hell, doesn’t this ever stop?_  

Theo’s head lifted as my attention was drawn down, his eyes following and the amused smirk lifting on his lips at the sight. 

“Mm.” He made an aroused, interested noise as he felt a hand up to touch the material. The other hand still held our boys firmly. “Nature knows we needed lube.” 

I scowled despite not being in a bad mood, not at all. It was more out of embarrassment. 

“It’s annoying.” 

My mate smiled a little wider, pressing another kiss down onto my shoulder before turning me gently by the hips. His hands took the hem of my shirt from me, lifting it up my chest and trapping it against my collarbones, and that familiar hungry glint in his eye flared out like it had never left. 

It made me want to squirm, it made me feel wanted. Like I was his prey. 

“It’s fucking  _stunning_ , Li.” He left a gentle trail of kisses down my left pec, all the way down to the darkened nipple where a little drop of nourishment sat waiting for his mouth. “Everything about you is absolutely stunning.” 

Minority of my brain wanted to argue, but it was defeated with flying colours as I realised that I was truly starting to believe him. The way he worshipped my body and soul, it made me feel precious. It made me feel like the most important thing in his world - and I was. I knew I was. 

He was the one person I’d never have to hide from, the one I could tell or show anything and I’d never have to feel embarrassed or ashamed. 

If he said I was stunning, then I believed him. 

So I didn’t argue. Instead I nodded, followed his eyes as he went down until his chest was pressed over my belly and his heartbeat could be felt pounding against it, against our boys and into their little bodies. I smiled wide and emotional at the feel of it, because I wanted them to learn him. I wanted them to know his heartbeat when they felt it, just like they knew his voice when they heard it. 

I cherished the kiss he left over my own heart in my sternum before holding his hair and letting him close his mouth over my nipple. 

It was a familiar feeling now, the wet heat of his mouth, the blunt edges of his teeth and the gentle, affectionate sucks of his tongue, lips and cheeks. It was a sensation that ran right down my spine and into the deep heat in my belly, the same heat that always craved him. 

I felt the texture of his mouth turning wetter, felt the tiny trickling stream of milk as he sucked it out of me. It was a soft tickle, the fluid slightly warmer in his mouth than his saliva as it came from the heat of my chest. 

I waited for him, my fingers stroking through his hair and keeping it back from that incredible face just so I could stare as he pulled the fluid from me. He was beautiful, all curved, hollowed-out cheeks and dark lowered eyelashes as he sucked. 

The fondness and love that blossomed in my chest was familiar now; it was a unique closeness I felt with him every time he fed from me, whether it was to get lubrication for sex or not. 

I didn’t know if boyfriends drinking from their pregnant lovers was normal, or if what we were doing was completely insane and nonsensical. I honestly had no idea - I’d never heard of it before this - but the happiness and comfort it made me feel, and the closeness it brought us, convinced me that it didn’t matter. If something brought us closer and made us happy, the logistics didn’t matter. 

The way his mouth caressed me, and the way his fingers took so gently to my skin as he sucked, told me that he felt the same way. This was private, just the two of us, and that meant nothing was illogical or odd. We were free together. 

I felt it when he had a mouthful, knew when the hollow of his cheeks softened and the sucks of his lips turned half-hearted, hesitant to draw in more for fear of spilling any. 

I expected it to end, for him to gently pull away and expel the liquid into his palm like he usually did nowadays, but he surprised me when those lashes lifted and his eyes met mine before he swallowed it all. 

I watched the column of his throat work as he did, imagined all the milk going down and coating his tongue in a soft, dilute whiteness, and he watched me. He watched me watching him, felt the wonder in my mind and saw my imagination, his fingers holding my waist and my belly and stroking as his sucks hardened again, as his tongue and lips asked my nipple for more. 

My eyes fell closed for a few seconds at the feel of what he was doing to me, both inside and out.

He was so fucking beautiful. The way he watched me and held me, and remained gentle as he sucked, he felt like the perfect nurser. Nothing would ever feel as good as him. 

“I love you.” I said softly down to him, scratching at his scalp affectionately with both hands as the emotion coursed through me. 

 _You’re my baby_ , my body said to his. 

His eyes sparkled at me before he closed them, leaning into me and continuing his ministrations as he let the arm looped around my back give a little squeeze. 

 _And you’re mine_ , he said back. 

My eyes flitted up, meeting themselves in the mirror and watching, taking in the sight of what we were doing and committing it to memory before I closed them. I relaxed under Theo’s hands and mouth, leaning into my heels and growing comfortable on my feet as he sucked and sucked, the seconds turning into minutes while he drew, swallowed, and drew again. 

I didn’t think my body was even capable of producing this much milk yet. I also didn’t think he even originally meant to keep drinking either, but the moment turned into something comfortable, so we let it stay. 

It had been long enough that my mind had slowed down, long enough that the moans and growls and furniture-bashing from down the hallway started drifting through to me when Theo finally leant back from my nipple with the mouthful of milk he’d gone in for in the first place. 

He let it out into a cupped palm, leaning up for one last little thankful kiss over my nipple before forcing himself to rise to his feet. 

There was an almost sleepy look in his eyes as he stood leaning against my side, one of so much comfort and relaxation that I knew it was the effect our connection had on him when he drank like that. It was like our souls were twining in a completely different way than they did when we had sex, but they were twining all the same and that’s what made us feel so full, so sleepy and satisfied. 

He leant in further, holding me closer with one arm and pressing the calmest of kisses to my lips. He let me taste it, let me taste the enjoyment and the strange substance from my own body originally meant for the babies. It was a taste I was slowly getting used to, one that I preferred when I tasted it from his tongue. He made it sweeter. 

“I love you, too.” He murmured against my lips, leaving one more kiss before leaning back and turning me to face myself in the mirror once more. “Just relax. Open up for me.” 

I leant on my palms as I had before and closed my eyes, waiting and listening while I spread my feet further apart. 

I let my senses expand, heard the steady thump of Theo’s heart and the wet dip of two fingers into the milk in his palm. It gave me just under two seconds’ notice before those fingers circled over my hole, spreading the sweet liquid before pressing up into me with the rest of it. 

I did as he said and opened up for him, putting my head down and biting on my lip as he coaxed me to let him in up to his knuckles. The stretch was sweet, but I knew I needed more. 

I stayed patient for him, though, waiting it out while he tamed my inner muscles, taking care of me before reassuring himself that it was safe to push in without hurting me. He was always so careful.

The two long fingers slowly left, leaving me empty for long enough so that he could stroke himself with the rest of the milk in his other palm, a couple of drops escaping to patter onto the tiles. Just the sound drove my body mad, my blood screaming and the babies in my belly squirming with the need for their father as I heard the wetness that he was going to sink into me. 

“Theo...” I reminded him, reaching back blindly to bring his hand under my shirt to feel the boys. 

He pressed closer, his chest fitting against my back as he circled over my belly and pressed kisses into my throat. 

“Sorry. Ready?” 

I nodded, gently arching my back for him and waiting as he put a hand between us. I felt the head of him nudge up against me and squeezed my eyes shut tighter, bracing and waiting eagerly for the relief and- 

“Li.” 

I opened my eyes to the countertop at the whisper, listening. 

“Look into the mirror.” 

My eyes obeyed, lifting and finding our reflection, finding the gentle green eyes watching me before Theo pushed up, clamping a hand down to hold my hip still when I moaned, bucked up into him with the hunger of our bond. 

I got to watch what it did to us as he pushed up into me, stretching me open and making his usual home buried amidst the walls inside me. I’d never seen us look quite like this. 

Theo’s expression I knew, I got to see it every morning and every night - and lately at midday, too - but it came under a different light when it was the both of us in the mirror together. 

It was like something was more colourful, complete. 

Our every feature complimented each other. The different shades of brunette in our hair, the multi-coloured flare of our eyes, the curves of our cheekbones and jaws, and the redness of our bitten lips as they parted and let out the breaths and pants that escaped on their own at the relieving pleasure of finally joining our bodies again after what felt like too long apart. 

The way we pressed together perfectly, comfortably, as though we were made for each other. The slightly darker tone of Theo’s skin next to mine, the big palm that he had holding our sons in my belly, and the long, beautiful fingers that he intertwined with mine on the sink counter. 

The crease between my brows and the pleasured  _ohhh fuck_  in my eyes matched the crease in Theo’s brow and the  _that’s it, baby_  in his eyes. 

And the relief in our faces and shoulders when he bottomed out, pressing as deep as he could go inside my body... all of it matched. All of it fell together so easily, so effortlessly that it was nothing but stunning. 

We’d never looked like this.  _I’d_  never looked like this. 

The shock and surprise was dulled by the lazy sag of relief in my limbs as I leant my head back on Theo’s shoulder and took it, listened to his breaths and watched us in the mirror as we turned into one person, joined together and so happy. 

“It’s beautiful.” I told him throatily, swallowing around the lump of joy rising in my chest. 

He kept his eyes on me in our reflection, watching even as he turned his head to fit his lips to the curve of my cheekbone. 

“You see it?” He agreed against my skin. 

I nodded, holding onto his hand tighter. My chest rose and fell a little faster as he nudged up deeper, circling his hips and pressing and _grinding_ to get that feeling up in my gut, like he was  _in there_. 

I wanted to nod but wound up shaking my head in awe as he held me, making thrusts and little figure eights up into my belly. 

“We’re perfect.” I admitted on a loose breath, my lashes lowering in comfort. “So good.” 

He lifted our right hands from the sink and wrapped them around my belly with the other two, hugging me and holding me as our blood calmed down and our souls settled together. 

“This is how it’s always going to be, baby.” He murmured into my hairline. “Forever. I promise.” 

It was when he said those words that I was reminded of the weight of the wedding ring upon my chest, under my shirt and promising the same things Theo had just said. 

Forever, always. Him and I. 

The back of my head fell heavier against his shoulder and our fingers twined tighter, the fresh memory of New Year’s and his proposal replaying in my mind and bringing a happy sting of tears to the corners of my eyes. 

I smiled, letting it grow wider and wider on my lips, and I started nodding. 

“Yes.” I promised back. He knew it was another yes - another  _yes, I’ll marry you. Yes, I’ll spend the rest of my life with you, just like this. Forever. Always._  “Yes.” 

He returned the smile, holding me as tight as was safe with the boys under our arms, and I could’ve sworn we fell into each other’s bodies. The ecstatic breath that fell over my throat and collarbones from his lips was warm, so beautiful in the cool room around us. 

“Yes.” He kissed it into my throat, holding on more securely to my hands to brace me as his hips started to move properly. 

I shut my eyes and let him hold me, let myself feel it all. 

The rhythm he created was just as perfect as usual, his hips angling in just the right direction so the head of him could graze up against my prostate. It sent electricity zinging through my nerves, almost weakening my knees as the precum let itself ooze from my cock in gratitude for the pleasure. 

He hit it over and over again in that practiced motion we now naturally fell into. We knew each other’s bodies wholly, every inch, every corner. Theo could tell you exactly how many places I was ticklish in, and I could tell you the exact number of little freckles that speckled his back and shoulders. 

These bodies were our home, our universe, all thanks to the two people who lived inside them.  _And_  our boys as well, on my part. 

Minutes passed while Theo kept up his pace, stroking the inside of my body and lifting our emotions so high that we felt alive with it, so high that it almost overwhelmed us. As those minutes continued we became more aware of the house around us again, the cosy comfort of the Stilinskis’ home with all its sounds and smells. 

We stayed pressed together, listening past our pants and quiet moans to the faint conversation between Noah and Scott downstairs. 

“It’s a mating thing,” We could hear Scott attempting to explain. “I guess they just need it.” 

A low sigh followed and I could almost see the way Noah pulled that helpless expression when he was trying his best to understand but honestly just felt weirded out. That expression where the corners of his eyes crinkled and his brows lifted. 

In the mirror, Theo and I wore identical little smiles. 

We listened a little closer, finally letting ourselves focus on the noises coming from Stiles and Derek. They were lower now, quieter and a lot lazier, and we knew they’d came. We recognised the drowsiness in them that came after really good sex. 

The low, pleasured grunting breaths came from Derek, mixtures between mere sounds and murmured expressions of love. They were muffled against skin. 

The exhausted whines of breath were open, unmuffled and carried out into the air to reach our ears easier. Stiles was worn out, ready to give in to the drowsiness that filled his body and mind, but the restlessness was still there in his veins like he needed more, like he never wanted his time with Derek to end. 

And then there were the sounds of sex - the wet sounds that followed after you came. The combination of their breaths and voices, the slow, lazy movement of skin on sweaty skin, the worn-in bedsheets rustling beneath heavy bodies, and the tell-tale slickness of a cock sliding with ease in a cum-filled belly. 

My eyes closed at the sound, because it was one of my favourite parts. The afterglow, the time that Theo and I would spend drifting in and out of consciousness together. Being tangled up and heavy with him was how I wished I could exist forever, endlessly, but the idea that that wasn’t how the world worked made me want to scream, to up and leave and find a world where it  _was_  possible.

But Theo always made it better. He taught me to appreciate the time we spent together, taught me to appreciate every minute of every day. And if I could feel that happy about every second of our lives until the day we died, maybe everything would be alright. Maybe it would still feel just as amazing. 

“Baby,” My mate warned breathlessly into my throat as he got closer to his edge, holding onto my hands tighter and pulling me closer as his hips snapped harder, faster. “Love you.” 

I held onto him too, tilting my head against the side of his so our lips could join messily amidst the movement of our bodies. He kissed me with as much coordination as he could gather, trying to pour all his love into me as I poured mine into him. 

I nodded against his lips. 

“I love you.”  _Slapslapslapslapslap_. “It- it’s okay. Cum.” 

 _Slapslapslapslapslap_ -

“You sure?” 

 _Slapslapslapslapslap_ - 

“Mhmm.” I breathed with an eager nod, squeezing his hands. I could feel his heartbeat pounding against my back. “I’m right behind you.” 

His shoulders relaxed, his hips fucking up into me another handful of times before, “ _Shit_.” left his lips and he buried his nose into the length of my hair at my jaw. 

Those hips stilled and I threw my head back as they deepened, held as deep as they could as he pulsed and throbbed in my absolute favourite way ever. 

“ _Please_ ,” I begged, even though he was already giving it to me, already filling me with that white-hot fluid and flooding my belly with its heaviness. 

I came on that feeling, begging a breathless  _please._ Tensing and painting spatters down the front of the sink counter and riding out the electric shocks of my orgasm while Theo held us up, keeping me just on this side of conscious with low breathless murmurs and I love you’s. He kept me with my feet on the ground and my mind in that bathroom, in the Stilinskis’ house with my alpha downstairs and another mated couple just like us a few doors down the hallway. 

I trembled like I always did after cumming on the feel of Theo, cumming  _with_  Theo. And he trembled like he always did after cumming on the feeling of me,  _with_  me. We stared at each other in the mirror while we caught our breath and let our nerves settle down, the tingling in our extremities slowly ebbing away and leaving a satisfied heaviness in its wake. 

Theo turned us, dropping his back against the bathroom wall and letting my weight lean back onto him as he held me and felt  _us_ with me, cherished every second of it. Our souls and our wolves were happy once more, no longer burning and begging for sex like satyromaniacs inside us. And the boys were heavy in our hands too, also pleased at the updated dose of Thiam. 

A lazy kiss was smooshed to the corner of my jaw, both of our heads tipped back against the wall, and we almost slept on our feet.

The house was peaceful and quiet, just like the emotions in our bodies, and an immeasurable chunk of time went by before a voice could be heard mumbling from Stiles’s room. 

At first neither of us bothered to listen hard enough to decode it, but when it repeated itself, we rose to the surface to listen. 

It was Stiles, sounding fairly exhausted and delirious as he roused Derek from his post-sex sleep. 

“Derek. Derek.” 

“Hmm?” 

“Liam. I w’nt Liam t’ come back. Please.  _Please_...” 

His words drifted off into incoherent mumbles as though sleep was trying to claim him, and my eyes finally opened for the first time since Theo’s back hit the wall behind us. 

My head tilted towards his on his shoulder and I watched as his eyes opened, too. 

“Can you hear him?” I whispered, my voice featherlight. 

Theo gave a slow nod.   
“He wants you.” 

I swallowed, taking a deep breath to wake myself up. 

“Doesn’t make sense.” 

His hands, still with mine holding the boys, rubbed and circled tenderly. It was half to give me affection, half to make a point. 

“It’s because you know.” He told me softly. “You’re like him.” 

 _Ah_ , my brain supplied quietly as my eyes closed again.  _He feels closer to me._  

“Should we go to him?” I asked uncertainly, shifting my hips a mere centimetre just to feel the beautiful stretch of Theo still inside me. “I’m not ready for you to go yet.” 

His hands rubbed at my belly again but he waited, like he knew I had more on my mind. 

I let it out a few breaths later. 

“And it won’t feel normal. Derek’ll be protective and they’re probably still having sex and... what would we even do? Sit there and watch them sleep?” 

“We could sleep, too.” 

I tilted my head away enough to look at him, and his eyes opened to look back at me sleepily, comfortably. He looked so content. 

“You’re serious?” I confirmed with a tired rasp to my voice. “You actually wouldn’t care if we just... laid next to them still having sex and slept?” 

He shrugged softly behind my shoulders, shifting as though he wanted to stretch. 

“I don’t know, it’s just different with them.” He reasoned softly. “They’re like us. They get it.” 

I tucked my face sideways, into his jawline as I breathed him in and closed my eyes, thinking. He meant _they get it_ , as in they understood the after-sex sleep. They got why we stayed joined together. 

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. We could see what Stiles wanted and stay if he wanted us to stay. Maybe it wouldn’t be weird, maybe Theo was right. 

I let the idea settle in my belly, waiting to see if it would raise any bad feelings before I made a decision, but it didn’t. Nothing happened except the continued, wordless mumbles only just audible from down the hallway, and I decided. 

“Okay. We’ll go.” 

Theo stirred softly, inhaling deep and slow against the side of my face. 

“Yeah?” 

I nodded.   
“Yeah.” 

He started to move at my confirmation, lifting his head, flexing his shoulders and circling his hands over the boys a few more times before holding them to my hips and easing himself out of me carefully. 

That same awful sinking feeling exploded inside my chest when he left, but he quickly eased it with the wrap of his arms back around me and a warm kiss to the junction of my throat and shoulder. 

I took a deep breath and stepped away from him when I was ready, taking the line of toilet paper he offered to wipe myself clean while he ducked down to wipe up the mess I made on the side of the sink. The whole bathroom smelled like cum but I hoped it would filter out soon enough. God forbid Noah smelt it. 

I felt a little unbalanced on my feet, post-sex drowsiness creeping up on me and weighing my limbs down. I had to put my back against the door just to balance myself as I focused all my energy on pulling my sweats back up my thighs. 

Theo tucked himself back into his jeans but left the zipper undone, retrieving his shirt from the floor and slinging it over one shoulder. He took my hand and pulled me close, opening the bathroom door slowly and checking the hallway for privacy before drawing me out and leading me to Stiles’s door.

The wordless mumbles became louder and louder until we cracked the door open, slowly peering in to find the tangle of bodies in the exact same position we’d last seen them. 

“ _Lee... ‘m_. Want... come back.” 

Derek’s back was broad enough to shield the top half of Stiles from view, spooning him so closely from behind that all we could see were his legs as they tangled with Derek’s at the end of the bed. 

Their bodies were completely uncovered again and Derek’s glutes were working as he very obviously still thrust his hips into Stiles lazily. It was what was jumbling his words up along with the drowsiness as he tried to speak, his brain unable to do much as it swam in the clouds and drowned in the pleasure. 

I felt like we were trespassing, walking back in on something that we weren’t meant to be seeing, but the feeling was less urgent than it had been earlier this morning. Now I felt more understanding; this had been Theo and I just seconds ago. 

“C’mon.” My mate pulled softly on my hand, letting us into the room and shutting the door behind us. 

He led us to the bed and slung his shirt over the end railing, putting a soft hand down to Stiles’s ankle. 

“Hey.” He whispered just loud enough for the new wolf to hear. “Stiles.” 

The mumbling tapered off and tired brown eyes opened, his shoulders tilting as he rolled back into Derek’s chest to get a look at us. 

His eyes found me and widened a little, his pupils dilating and his chest expanding as he inhaled deeper. He was smelling us, smelling the sex on our skin and learning where we’d been and what was happening. 

“Hey.” I greeted him softly, leaning into Theo’s side. “You were calling for me.” 

Stiles swallowed, his mouth falling open and waiting for words to come out while Derek came to. 

Those eden green eyes opened and he looked first at Stiles, determining his mate’s emotions and thoughts before looking to Theo and I. 

I expected to have to duck and run before he tore us to pieces, but as his eyes roamed over us, something about him softened up. His eyes didn’t widen from their tired squint and his arms didn’t pull Stiles in any tighter. His hips didn’t even stop their random, sporadic thrusts up into his mate’s belly. 

It was like he actually heard and processed Stiles’s murmurs before, like he knew that having us in the room was what Stiles wanted. So his eyes flashed gently at us, inviting us closer before he shut them again and nuzzled into the back of Stiles’s neck to settle with a long, comfortable sigh. 

Stiles reached out to the empty space of mattress on the right side of his bed against the wall, and tapped a hand on it. His head fell back down to the pillow in exhaustion and his brows worried, mouth falling open soundlessly as Derek thrust his hips deep once more. 

I almost felt the beautiful sensation in his belly just from seeing his reaction, gripping Theo’s hand in mine with jealousy.  

 _I still need you._  

He squeezed back.  _I need you too_. 

“Lay down.” Stiles murmured, voice hitching as he recovered from the explosion of pleasure. 

I looked to Theo, searching his eyes for help as uncertainty blossomed again inside my chest, but he eased it with a gentle nod and a kiss to my lips. 

“It’s okay. He just wants you there.” 

 _Some deep part of him needs you_ , is what he didn’t say aloud, and I understood.

I gave a soft nod back and he led the way, crawling onto the mattress over Stiles and Derek’s legs and settling on the other side to hold out his hands for me. 

I took them and let him help balance me as I stepped over their ankles, bracing my weight on his shoulders and lowering down to the mattress as carefully as I could. We laid on our sides facing Stiles and Derek, the both of them facing us, too.

Theo curled up behind me and closed the space between our bodies, holding me close and comfortable against him. 

Stiles’s eyes opened and, for a long sleepy moment, he stared at me. Just stared, looking over my face and then down my throat, down over the shirt upon my chest and then to my belly. 

“You’re really beautiful.” He admitted in a low murmur. I wasn’t even sure if he was properly conscious. “Ridiculous beautiful. Like ‘n angel.” 

I tried not to stare in confusion, swallowing instead and relaxing when Theo’s fingers tickled at my belly encouragingly. I also tried not to stare at the nakedness of the two wolves in front of me. 

“Thanks.” I whispered back to Stiles, holding onto my mate’s arms and wishing with all I had that I could feel him like Stiles got to feel Derek. “How do you feel?” 

Stiles closed his eyes, reaching a hand out across the space between us to close it gently around my wrist. I tried not to flinch at the unexpected contact, but then he was pulling me, tugging me towards him. 

 _What the hell is he doing?_  my brain panicked, but Theo eased it with a supportive hand over my hip. He nudged me forwards and so I went, obeying Stiles’s tugs with Theo following my body across the bed until I was nearly forehead to forehead with Stiles. 

The sleepy wolf’s fingers remained curled around my wrist, loose and there to stay as he nosed closer and inhaled. I realised he was unconsciously smelling my scent, smelling everything about me and everything about Theo. He smelt my skin and my blood, my personality and the babies. He smelt my emotions and my attraction to Theo, and he smelt the love we just made. 

He didn’t react except for a stroke of his thumb over the back of my hand and the settle of his hips as he relaxed around Derek and let himself drift deeper towards sleep. 

“Feel different.” He finally answered. “A little scared.” 

My heart quickly softened for him. I knew how he felt. 

“It’s very different when everything first changes.” I nodded even though he couldn’t see. My wrist relaxed under his grip and I looked calmly over his face. “You don’t need to be afraid. Derek’s going to be right here to support you, always.” 

The gentlest of kisses pressed against the side of my throat and my entire body loosened up, sinking into the mattress and letting the drowsiness return heavier than ever. 

I felt the boys twitch under Theo’s hand, as though they couldn’t understand why I was going to sleep when their father wasn’t in there with them. 

It made my heart ache, but then the hand on my belly lowered.

I laid very still and waited, silent while my sweats were pulled back down to the tops of my thighs. There was the gentle rustle of denim and then the welcome, smooth soft warmth of Theo’s thickness against my behind once more - and already the relief started easing through my veins. 

A finger dipped over my hole gently to collect any escaped cum, and moments later a wet slippery head nudged back inside me. My eyes shut and I tried my best not to grip the bedsheets or Stiles’s hand as Theo sunk back up into me, settling deep and resuming his place in my belly with our boys where he belonged.

My mouth fell open at the mere sensation and every limb in my body went lax with the comfort. 

He was like a drug. An antidote. 

I’d almost drifted off into sleep with my mate hot and pressed up against my body when Stiles spoke softly. 

“What does it feel like?” 

For a second I paused. Did he know that Theo had just...? Why would he be asking if he was literally experiencing the exact same thing? 

But then I surfaced a bit more from sleep and realised he meant being pregnant. I glanced down to the distended swell of my stomach under Theo’s protective arm and tried, not for the first time, to imagine Stiles looking like me. 

“It’s... full. It feels full and tight, and a little heavier with the tiny extra lives growing in there.” 

“Is it uncomfortable?” 

I found myself smiling very softly, shaking my head against the pillow. 

“No. If your mate is always right there with you, it feels good. Like a constant warmth in there that just keeps expanding, and you love it.” My smile grew as my eyes roamed over Stiles’s sleepy face and heavy lashes. “You’re going to like it.”

I glanced to the bare flatness of his belly, butterflies fluttering a little inside me at the thought that he was getting pregnant right now. His body was doing what mine had done; it was in the process of fertilisation, and then soon implantation. It was incredible. 

Stiles started to smile too, as though in his sleep. 

“Can’t wait to get big.” He mumbled. “Gonna be...” 

I waited, the fan gently whooshing above us and the seconds ticking by into a full minute before I realised amusedly that he wasn’t going to continue. 

“He’s out.” Theo whispered with an exhaled laugh into my hair, pressing a soft  _good night_  kiss to my skin and settling against my back. “Sleep, baby.”

I settled too, staring at the boy ahead of me for a few moments longer before I tilted my head forwards just enough on the pillow.

I joined my forehead with Stiles’s.

If I shifted my hips forward a few inches, his knee would touch my belly. 

“Stay.” Was the last faint thing he breathed out to me, a couple of fingers stroking upon the back of my hand before he properly drifted off to sleep. 

And we stayed. 

The four of us were a close, dark-haired huddle of limbs in the middle of the bed, all with our heads centimetres apart and breathing the same air as we dozed. 

We were both having sleep-sex in the same room, on the same bed, and it should’ve felt extremely weird and out of place but it didn’t. It felt somehow comfortable, like one of the most natural things in the world. 

I supposed this was what it felt like to find a pack of wolves who were exactly like you. 

***

“Are you  _kidding me?!_ ” 

I jumped awake when the bedroom door was slammed shut, listening with a pounding heart and a confused brain as bursts of feminine yells faded down the hallway to the stairs. 

“You couldn’t have  _warned_  me, Scott?!” 

Theo stirred behind me while we listened, and the both of us surfaced from sleep at the same time. We took a second to realise where we were and what was happening. 

We were huddled up together on Stiles’s bed with him and Derek while they slept - neither of them had even stirred from the loud noises. I still felt the whole, complete sensation in my belly that came when Theo was inside me and I relaxed into the pillow, feeling him settle back down behind me and drift back off to sleep once he was sure I was safe and comfortable.  

When my limbs loosened to relax, I realised someone else was touching my body. 

I blinked.

Blinked again, blinked a third time and tilted my chin down before realising that below it was a head of soft brunette hair. There were arms and hands tangled around mine, the press of a knee or two against the roundness of my belly, and soft warm breaths puffing into my collarbones where Stiles had his face buried. 

He was snuggled up against me, pressed into the warmth of my body while the heat of Derek’s covered him from behind. Combined with the heat that Theo filtered into me, we were one huddle of sleeping, warm, familiar limbs. 

I blinked a few more times in stillness as I tried to process that someone who wasn’t Theo was pressed up against me and almost sleeping in my arms, and at first the emotion in my chest was uncomfortable, weirded out.

But the longer I felt Stiles’s soft breaths over my chest and saw the content rise and fall of his back, I settled into it. 

He felt some form of connection to me, it was undeniable. He was experiencing the normally impossible things that I’d experienced not two months ago, and we were the only two that we knew of who’d experienced it in this town, this _state_ in the last hundred years. 

It was like finding another human in miles and miles of desert, someone to rely upon and accompany you in that wild part of the world you knew absolutely nothing about. 

Once I got past the foreignness of having a different person in my personal space, the idea grew less uncomfortable. Of course he felt close to me. I should’ve felt close to him too; he was exactly like me, he’d chosen to let his body change to be like me. To have what I had. 

And I did feel close to him, I realised.

He felt almost like a long-lost sibling. But I just hadn’t been prepared for the affection. 

I closed my eyes and let myself drift back towards sleep, but the voices from downstairs crept in to distract me. 

“That is not what I wanted to see on my first day of 2018. It’s not what I wanted to see,  _period!_ ” 

I could hear a low contrasting laugh in response to the feminine frustration, recognising it immediately as Scott’s laugh. The one he laughed when he knew he really shouldn’t be laughing. 

“It’s not my fault you rushed up there before I could warn you that they were...” 

“Having  _sex?_  All four of them?” Silence and then a huff of attitude. “Who even does that?” 

“ _Mates_  do.” Came the more serious, sober response. 

The girl fell quiet as though a sharp point had been made, and they were silent for a few long seconds. 

I could almost hear the hurt in the room before she responded quietly, coldly. 

“I wouldn’t know what it feels like to have a mate.  _Someone_  won’t talk about it.” 

 _Oh_. 

It was definitely Malia. 

I wanted to stop listening, because this was something private between them as on-again off-again lovers, but I had nothing else to listen to. I tried focusing on Theo’s heartbeat, and then on Stiles’s and Derek’s as well but the words still filtered up and found my ears despite the effort. 

“Malia, please,” Scott sighed, sounded tired. “Can we not talk about this? I’m leaving in a few hours, and I don’t want to be fighting with you when I do.” 

“Exactly, you’re  _leaving_. It isn’t like there’ll be another opportunity anytime soon. So come on.” 

“Malia-” 

“We’re  _talking_  about it, Scott.” She demanded firmly. “Am I not good enough to be the mate of Beacon Hills’ true alpha? Is that it?” 

Scott sighed again, and in my mind I could just see him starting to pace like he did when he was uncomfortable.  

“No, you know that’s not true. Please, just stop spitting fire at me.” 

“Then  _talk to me!_  What is it? What have I done wrong?!” 

“Lower your voice.” He warned lowly instead of answering her, and I knew it was half to keep their conversation private, half to keep Malia from waking us all up. 

“I’m yelling so you’ll  _hear me!_  Why does the idea of a relationship  _repel_  you so much?!” 

“Because I just-!” He almost burst out before stopping himself, growling to himself and forcing his voice to a halt. 

By the way Theo’s heartbeat matched mine against my back, I knew he was awake and listening, too. His fingers twined with mine and I leant back into him without rustling Stiles from his burrow in my chest. 

A thumb rubbed tenderly over my knuckles. 

“Because the way things are now, it’s going to hurt more than it’s going to succeed.” Scott finally answered Malia softly, almost dejectedly. “I’m... you’re in senior year, I’m two hours away at college.” 

“So?” 

“So the distance will make it  _difficult_. It’s already hard enough to make time for each other around schoolwork. And it’s already hard enough being away from home up to three months at a time... I can’t just add _missing you_ to that. I can’t.” 

Malia was quiet for the longest five seconds before Scott seemed to sink down into a chair at the Stilinskis’ dining table.

I could hear him breathing, that same breathing pattern that he took on when he was stressed. It was like muscle memory, his body automatically working his lungs in short panicked breaths like it used to when he had his asthma. 

“So you’re just protecting yourself.” Malia came to a stubborn conclusion, and the short breaths made way for another heavy sigh. 

“I’m protecting me, but I’m also protecting  _you_. Can’t you see that?” He exhaled in a rush of breath. “You have this strong, indestructible face on all the time and you’ll pretend nothing’s wrong even if everything’s falling apart, but I know you. I know you’d feel it after each time I left. I know you’d miss me like I miss you and I won’t put either of us through that. Being mated, that distance would be almost impossible. You’ve seen what Theo was like after being separated from Liam for just a few hours after the Burnetts took him. It almost destroyed him. Almost destroyed both of them.” 

My heart did a sad sort of somersault in my chest just to be reminded of that god-awful month. The month of torture and tears and separation from Theo, and the early pregnancy symptoms that broke my body down. 

Theo’s arms pulled me tighter against his chest and I went, burying my nose down into Stiles’s hair as my mate thrust up into me to remind me with a shock of pleasure that those awful weeks were long gone, that he was  _right here_. 

_I’ve got you, baby._

“We’re used to the distance though, Scott.” Malia’s voice came softer now, a chair creaking as she lowered herself into it. “Maybe we’d be able to handle it.” 

I heard skin sliding on skin, fingers intertwining with fingers. 

“I don’t  _want_  to have to handle it.” He whispered, as though their heads were mere inches apart. I could barely hear him now. “I’m sorry, bub. I am, but I don’t want to put us through it.” 

A gentle sigh left Malia’s nose. 

“I don’t want you to tell yourself that I don’t feel anything for you.” Scott continued softly. “That’s not the reason I won’t do this, and you know how strong my feelings are. Just... six more months. If we can wait six more months then... maybe I could get a transfer, go to a closer college. Or I could change my degree to part time, do it over four years instead of two-”

“Or I could go to live in Davis with you after graduation.” She offered suggestively. 

“Exactly.” He took a slow, steady breath. “Malia, I promise, I do want something with you. You know I...” 

_You know I love you._

But he wouldn’t say it. Not yet, not when he knew how much more harm than good it would do her right now. 

“You know how much I care about you.” He whispered instead. “We just have to wait, let a little time go by before anything can work. Okay? It’ll be so much better that way.” 

“Yeah.” Malia agreed in the softest of voices, inhaling deep. It almost sounded like a sniffle, but if she was crying Scott knew not to acknowledge it. She preferred it that way. “Just... remember to text me, okay?” 

I heard the gentlest brush of skin on skin again, and if I closed my eyes it almost sounded like a finger wiping away a tear. 

“Of course. Every day, if you want me to. I’ll be here as much as I can. I mean, we’ve got a few public holidays coming up and they’ll fall on a long weekend-”

“Yeah.” 

“So I’ll come home for those. And I have my spring half-term early February, that’ll be one week.” Silence for another five seconds. “I’ll try my best to come home when I can. We can hang out, do some stuff.” 

I imagined a soft smile on Malia’s lips, the sway of her hair above her shoulders as she nodded. 

“I’d like that.” 

I imagined Scott’s smile, too. 

“So would I.” 

The silence went for much longer this time, only the breaths and heartbeats of the boys around me audible. It went on for so long that it was almost borderline awkward before Malia finally broke it. 

“So, what are we going to do while we wait for those four upstairs to wake up?” 

“Uh...” I could just hear the way Scott’s mind reverted to sex like he was still a freshman of fifteen, but he swallowed around it and came up with a much more appropriate response. “We could pick a movie? Stiles has hundreds on his hard drive.” 

Malia seemed pleased with the suggestion. 

“Does he have all the Saw films?” 

Of course she voted for horror. 

I almost heard Scott’s grin as he stood from the dinner table and replaced his chair underneath it. 

“Positive. C’mon.” 

I zoned out after they moved to the lounge room, their conversation continuing regarding new releases at the theatre or something similar as my head spun back into sleep and my fingers softened in Theo’s. 

The gentle hum of Scott and Malia’s voices became a nice blur in my ears, the two tones complimenting each other in pleasant waves until sleep actually took me and I started to dream. 

I didn’t _realise_ I was dreaming until I was waking up again, and then after that I couldn’t remember what it was I even dreamt about.

I stretched out in the spidery tangle of Theo’s limbs and groaned at the uncomfortable stretch in my waist as I laid on my left side without a support under my belly for so long. The weight of the boys was like a firm tug on my skin, slowly stretching and pulling with gravity like it wanted to tear apart. 

So I rolled. Theo’s hands followed me and Stiles let me go as I shifted around on the mattress, eventually having to let my mate slide from inside me so we could lay face to face. 

I barely noticed the emptiness inside me when I snuggled up against his chest, relishing in the beautiful smell of his skin as I pressed my face to it. 

“Morning.” He murmured with a smile upon my forehead, a hand circling over my back again and again. 

I smiled back and pressed a kiss to the smoothness of his left pec. 

“Hey. How long have you been awake?” 

I felt his shoulder shrug only slightly. 

“A few minutes. Not long. How d’you feel?” 

I shifted my hips experimentally as the stretching feeling in my right stopped, nodding affirmatively when I felt no pain. 

“M’ good. Boys are getting heavy.” 

His smile stretched wider and he couldn’t help but slide a hand around to feel. 

“They’re growing up big ’n strong.” He agreed proudly as he felt the distinct bulge of baby B poking out against the mattress under my weight. I could feel the shift of his tiny limbs under my skin as Theo pushed on him. “I can’t wait to see them.” 

The excitement fluttered up inside my chest at the idea. 

“Neither can I. Although, it’d be nice if we could find names for them.” 

My mate gave a soft laugh, knowing as well as I did that  _that_  was a whole other issue. Every name we thought we liked just never stuck. Like the names we wanted to find, were  _meant_  to find, just hadn’t come up yet. 

And it bothered us, because it felt like they were both at the tips of our tongues. Like they were so close that we could touch them if we wanted. But we just didn’t  _know_. 

“We will.” Theo reassured me anyway with a tender kiss to my brow. “I know we will.” 

The two of us rested in each other’s arms for a few seconds before someone inhaled beside us, a deep inhalation that could only be drawn by a bigger set of lungs than Stiles’s. 

“I heard Mieczyslaw was a good name.” Derek rasped out slowly, the shit-eating smile audible in his words, and Theo and I couldn’t help but laugh. 

“No offense to Stiles, but absolutely not.” Theo responded on his laugh. “We want our kids to actually be capable of spelling their names.” 

I silently agreed with that wish.

I couldn’t imagine teaching a four-year old to spell a name like Stiles’s in kindergarten. 

Derek took the response light-heartedly, drawing Stiles closer as he squirmed sleepily and nodding to agree. 

“His mother chose it. He was pretty much stuck with it.” 

“Until Scott made up ‘Stiles’ in the second grade.” Stiles mumbled out to add, half-asleep with his face pressed against Derek’s chest. “It was easier for him to pronounce rather than fucking up the name of the kid he was stuck sitting next to for a whole year, so after that everyone just sort of went with it.” 

I grinned.   
“And now you’re Stiles.” 

He nodded nostalgically. 

“And now I’m Stiles.” There was a pause. “A  _hungry_  Stiles.” 

I rolled onto my back to turn and look at him, enjoying the sight combined with the dark beauty of Derek’s face atop his head. 

“I’ll bet. When’s the last time you guys left this room?” 

Stiles made a face. 

“Never? Not since the bite.” 

 _Jesus_. 

My brows lifted and I stared in disbelief. 

“Not even to pee? Do you  _want_  a bladder infection?” 

The low, genuinely amused laughs that erupted from the three people around me were almost too loud for my settled eardrums. They laughed like they couldn’t believe I’d said it.

Theo’s arms hugged me closer in adoration while Derek and Stiles tilted their heads to make fun of me. 

“Listen to you. You already sound like a Mom.” 

I rolled my eyes and a kiss descended upon my cheek from beside me. 

“Of course you’d say that.” Theo chuckled lovingly while I pretended to pout. “Always thinking of the technical stuff.” 

I shrugged, folding my arms over my chest but linking my fingers with his in the process. 

“It’s true. They haven’t gone to pee in like... fifteen hours. And after all the water they’ve had I’ll bet it’s sitting pretty uncomfortably in there by now.” 

Theo shook his head and huffed another gentle laugh through his nostrils over my hairline, but Stiles stirred beside us and twisted his face into a grimace as my words rang true. 

“Actually, you’re not wrong. Wow.” He shifted a little, reaching behind him as Derek reached for the same place, and he winced a little in discomfort as their bodies separated. 

We watched quietly as Derek rose, offering his hands to help Stiles sit up. The smaller boy almost cried out as he did, a hand shooting to his lower back and his jaw setting as he grit his teeth. 

I grimaced out of sympathy; I remembered the pain he was experiencing. 

“Fuck, that’s tender.” He grunted, leaning into Derek’s hands as they tried to soothe the spot. “You’ve ruined me.” 

Derek only smiled with that loving glint in his eye that Theo got when he looked at me. 

“You’re a wolf now, kid.” He poked without sympathy, leaning back against the headboard of the bed and resting his hands behind his head. “You’ll heal.” 

Stiles rolled his eyes and swung his legs over the edge of the bed, shifting over the muscular thickness of his lover’s thighs to find his feet on the carpet. He had trouble finding his balance after so many hours spent half-conscious. 

Derek smirked and added to his statement with a dark wink at his mate. 

“And then I’ll ruin you all over again.” 

Stiles took the playful threat in his stride, shoulders falling easy and carefree as the hidden affection of the sentence rolled over him, and he waved a hand dismissively. 

“Yeah,” He winced as he slowly and gingerly stretched his legs. “Love you, too.  _Ah_ , shit...”  

The three of us looked over in concern at the low curse. His torso was twisted and he was looking behind him, down and then parting his legs and...  _oh_.  _Wow_. 

I swallowed, staring as the thick creamy substance ran slowly down the insides of his thighs like a never ending, flooding reminder of the last fifteen hours for them. 

It wasn’t like it hadn’t ever happened to me before, but I couldn’t stop staring because there was so  _much of it_. Did I ever look like that? 

Stiles made an apologetic face at us. 

“Sorry, uh...” 

Theo waved a hand, eager to brush off the possible awkwardness in the room. 

“All good. Maybe take a shower while you’re out there, huh?” 

Stiles nodded generously and turned to rummage through his drawers for a fresh set of clothes. 

“Definitely. Thought my body was supposed to absorb this shit after a few hours.” 

No one said anything, but we could tell just by the barely-restrained grin on Derek’s face that he was thinking it:  _maybe I just gave you too much, babe._  

His smile was definitely alight, his eyes filled with so much fondness while he watched his lover disappear into the hallway butt-naked, leaving the door open behind him and groaning in discomfort to himself as he made his way to the bathroom. 

Seeing the healthy relationship between them, especially now that they were mated, made something comfortable and happy blossom in my belly for them. 

They were going to be good at this. 

The larger wolf breathed a comfortable sigh beside us, stretching out all his muscular limbs and sagging against the bedframe with content. 

“You good?” Theo asked him with a caring calmness to his tone that he usually reserved for me and sometimes Scott. 

I wanted to smile at the connection he was slowly growing with Derek, the two becoming fonder of each other thanks to the mutual ground between them - from one mated protector to another. 

Derek didn’t even have a hard time opening up to him, letting his true feelings show as he smiled and nodded. 

“Yeah.” He admitted softly, happily. “Really good.” 

Theo understood, more than even I could understand. He smiled back over my forehead as he dropped a kiss to it gently. 

“On top of the world?” 

Derek’s smile grew just that little bit and I saw life flash in the eden of his eyes. 

He shook his head as he thought, obviously astounded. 

“It’s just...” He looked down at his feet. “We’ve wanted this for so long. Wanted to just be together, to mate each other and... well, have a  _life_.” He looked up then, to look at Theo and I with a small half-smile and a fond glance down to my belly. “And then we heard that it was possible to add our own  _family_  into that and it was immediate, we wanted it so badly. And now...” 

“Now you have it.” I whispered, and he nodded. 

“Now we have it.” 

My lips tilted up for him. After all the shit he’d gone through with losing his family, and all the years of being hunted and convicted, he deserved this peace. It looked good on him, and so did Stiles. 

“Never let him go.” I let myself say softly, laying my head down closer to Theo’s and loving the sweet puff of air he contentedly let brush over my forehead. “You’re going to be amazing together.” 

One more powerful flash of happiness danced over Derek’s features before he nodded, letting silence fall through the room until he was ready to move. 

He sat up and stood from the bed, finding a pair of underwear on the carpet and slipping them on over his nakedness. 

“I might join him.” He motioned towards the bathroom, and we both nodded to let him go. “Thank you guys for being here. To support him. It really means a lot to us.” 

Theo and I offered gentle smiles at his gratitude, both unable to help seeing him as a younger and newly mated  _us_. 

He had such an intense ride ahead of him. 

“Anytime.” 

We watched Derek disappear and laid together on our own for a nice long minute before I tilted my head on Theo’s shoulder. 

His eyes met mine and we smiled at each other fondly. I felt a hand circle over the boys. 

“I love you.” He promised me, lowering another beautiful kiss to my forehead and running his fingers through the length of my hair. 

I sunk into his touches and accepted them into every pore in my skin. 

“I love you, too.” 

It wasn’t long before an awful scream rang out through the house, terrible and staged from one of the female characters from Saw on the TV downstairs. Our ears perked up at the sound and Theo looked at me, pulling one of his absolute best Jon Kramer voices with as serious an expression as he could muster. 

“Do you want to play a game?” 

I grinned, shaking my head and resisting laughter at his very accurate impersonation of Jigsaw before sitting up and pressing a kiss to the irresistible, happy curve of his lips. 

“Only if it involves plenty of kisses.” 

He nodded to agree very enthusiastically, tugging me down for a frantic series of smooshy kisses before getting up with me and tugging on my hands to pull me downstairs. 

We joined Scott and Malia on the sofa, pretending not to care that they were kind of cuddled up on one end. We just cuddled up on the other and smiled at Scott when he looked across to us. 

“You guys okay?” He asked softly over the dialogue on the screen. 

We knew by the look in his eyes that he was also asking about Stiles and Derek, and we smiled and nodded to reassure him that everything was more than fine. 

“We’re good.” Theo answered, and he let Scott reach over across the sofa to pat a gentle palm over the growing swell of my belly. 

I watched the brown of his eyes, adoring and so fond of it as he felt it. He was like a proud older brother. 

“Scott.” I whispered, waiting for those eyes to find mine. He looked at me with question and I gave him a look. One he would understand very quickly. “We heard.” 

Malia didn’t seem to be paying attention, but I knew Theo was listening. His eyes were glued to the TV screen, but his fingers were swaying over the side of little baby B which told me he wasn’t actually focused on the film. He was focused on me. 

Scott watched me for a few seconds as he put it together, those brown eyes growing a little tired and remorseful on the subject of not being able to have a relationship with Malia. 

But I reached up and closed my hand over his, rested it upon baby A’s side of my belly and gave a squeeze. Just to silently remind him that what he did was right, that we were here for him and that we all loved him. 

The message got through, because his eyes lightened. The stress left them and he settled in next to me, hand comfortable under mine and affectionately tickling over my belly like a proud, excited uncle. 

And I didn’t even mind it. 

I didn’t squirm, didn’t wait until his hand finally left the most vulnerable place on my body, the one I most wanted to protect. My heart rate remained steady and my eyes grew a little heavier in comfort as we watched the rest of Saw II, Theo also the epitome of calm up against my body. 

Everyone fell into a happy quiet, enjoying the films and comfortable in our places on the sofa. So much so that we barely even shifted when Stiles and Derek finally made their way down the stairs together. 

Scott and Malia just turned their heads to smile and watch as Noah stood from his laptop at the dining table to greet his son. 

“Hey, Dad.” 

He pulled Stiles into a hug and held him there, arms wrapped around his body to feel and make sure he was alright, that he was healthy and unhurt. 

“Are you alright?” He asked softly, and Stiles nodded. 

“Yeah. I feel really good; no pain. I’m sorry we stayed up there for so long...” 

His father even let Derek in a little closer, putting a brief trusting hand to the taller man’s shoulder and giving it a grateful squeeze in silent thanks for taking care of his son. 

“Don’t worry about it.” He brushed off the apology easily. “Scott tried to explain - something about mates and bonding. I think I understand.” 

The smile Stiles gave his Dad was one that lifted his whole face and lit his eyes up. He gave a relieved laugh and patted his father’s chest encouragingly. 

“That’s good. Hey, are there any leftovers in the fridge? Starving.” 

He didn’t even wait for a response before the fridge door rattled open and hands started rummaging through the contents. Noah answered with a brief description of ‘chicken from last night’ before shaking his head and moving back to his work on the laptop. 

“His appetite sure hasn’t changed.” He muttered to an amused Derek as he began to type. “He’ll eat you out of the house when you take him back to Sacramento. God forbid he’s anything like his mother when she was pregnant with him.” 

Scott, Theo and I shared little grins at the fatherly trip down memory lane, and I knew we all felt that insurmountable happiness rising in our chests at the ease with which Noah was acknowledging that Stiles was actually going to get pregnant. It was like he had learnt to accept it overnight, once he’d seen how badly the couple wanted it. 

I couldn’t imagine how much it really frightened him as a parent, but he grit his teeth and worked through that fear for Stiles’s sake. I hoped Stiles knew how incredibly lucky he was to have such a solid, supportive father, no matter the situation. 

The mood inside the house was the most humble it had been since dinnertime last night, and it put everyone at ease. 

We spent the afternoon comfortable and content in the lounge room as the second Saw film turned into the third. Stiles and Derek joined us with large plates of roast chicken and mountains of salad, squishing onto the end of the sofa beside Malia and forcing Scott up against my side. 

Everyone rested upon each other. My head took its place on Theo’s shoulder against his jawline, and Scott’s rested upon my shoulder. Malia leant against his, and Stiles and Derek cuddled up on their end of the sofa. 

All our breaths were steady and even, almost like the whole room was asleep. 

And when he felt ready, baby A mustered up the energy to finally come up and say his first hello to his Uncle Scott with a big bold nudge into his hand. 

The quick lift of the alpha’s head off my shoulder and the way his eyes widened, eyebrows shooting through the roof, made the moment so utterly priceless. The breath left him and Theo and I watched while his brain circled in surprise and excitement. 

“Was that a baby?” He rushed out, and I was unable to stop the grin as I nodded. 

“It was.” I ran a hand beside his, rubbing over the baby to praise him for making the effort through his tiredness to come up and make contact with someone new. “Was baby A, he’s our big one.” 

“He  _felt_  big. That was so weird...” 

I wanted to take a picture of his expression so I could keep it locked up in my memories forever. The emotional brightness in his eyes was something I’d never forget. 

“If you give him a little poke, he might do it again.” 

Scott glanced up at us excitedly, waiting for Theo to nod him ahead before he pressed down, poking and feeling until coming into contact with something firmer under the surface and pausing. 

We waited one, two, three seconds and then I felt the shifting and dragging of limbs under the skin on the left side of my belly. Baby A rolled and jerked around to get comfortable, pushing a fist up into Scott’s hand before tiring out and settling back in to sleep above all the organs inside my stomach. 

“That’s incredible,” Scott smiled in disbelief, rubbing a thumb over my shirt as everything went still below his palm. “There’s actually little bodies moving around in there, it’s awesome.” 

I smiled, lifted a hand to cover his again. I gave it a squeeze and he rested back against my shoulder again, wrapping an arm around Malia. 

“I’m just glad you got to feel one of them before you go back to college.” I murmured. “They’ll be so much bigger next time you’re home.” 

“Mm.” He hummed almost sadly. “It shouldn’t be too long. I’ll be visiting back in about two weeks if I don’t get flooded with subject stimulus. Maybe I’ll feel them then, hey?” 

I smiled and nodded lazily, tucked in against my comfy cushion named Theo. 

“Might even feel little one that time.” 

I felt the softest of nods on my shoulder. 

“Maybe I will.” 

I knew when he fell asleep. 

His breaths evened out and his fingers went lax against my belly under my hand, his head lolling on my shoulder and sending gentle wafts of his shampoo into my nose. I closed my eyes and committed it to memory, valuing every second that he spent here with us all before he had to leave. 

I listened with a crinkled nose as the film continued before us, knowing that the battery drill I could hear was being drilled into a haemorrhaging Jon Kramer’s skull, and was suddenly glad that my eyes were closed. Stiles made a low  _ew_  at the other end of the sofa, and then the angle grinder came out. 

The sun slowly sank lower and lower and the film went on, but when dusk finally fell upon Beacon Hills, we knew it was time for Scott to go. 

The mood dropped in the room around us and the head on my shoulder gave a gentle nuzzle, as though my alpha could feel how much it was hurting me just thinking of saying goodbye. My fingers squeezed his anew over my belly and he gave it a slow rub, apologetic and comforting. 

 _It’ll be okay_ , his actions seemed to whisper. 

And when Melissa arrived and came into the lounge room to run a hand through her son’s hair, the tears threatened to come. 

 _No_ , my insides started to plead, but I shut my eyes and buried harder into Theo, gripping onto him and letting his arms wrap around my body to shield me from the horrible emotions. I told myself it was just the hormones. This wasn’t as bad as it felt. 

It was like Scott said; he would be home heaps anyway. He had long weekends and a half-term, and then spring break. It would all be fine. We’d see him. 

I stayed curled up in my mate’s arms, didn’t move a muscle, even as Lydia, Mason and Corey arrived and crowded around Scott to hug him goodbye. To help him carry his bags out to the sporty red Honda Civic and deposit them in the back.

Theo held me, kept me safe and tangled in the sweet-smelling darkness in the crook of his neck, and he was all I had to keep from shattering. 

_I’ve got you, baby. Always._

Minutes passed and the sky grew darker outside, lights in the kitchen being turned on and conversation finally draining out as everyone came to terms with the fact that Scott had to go before it got any darker. 

Hugs and goodbyes happened all over again and I still didn’t move, _couldn’t_ , felt as though I would fall apart if Theo’s arms loosened just a little. But then I felt a familiar hand raking through the length of my hair, pulling it back off my face and out from under Theo’s jaw and the tears let themselves free. 

“Liam,” Scott coaxed me gently, softly and painfully. “I have to go.”

I held onto Theo tighter,  _no_. 

“I can’t.” 

Hands rubbed up and down on my back. A pair of lips pressed against my forehead. 

“C’mon, baby.” Theo whispered. “It’ll be okay. I’ve got you.” 

My nails dug into the back of his neck to tell him,  _I can’t say goodbye_ , but he roused me from under his jaw and rearranged my lifeless limbs so he could cradle me, brush my hair back and press his cheek to my forehead. 

The tears rolled no matter how tight I squeezed my eyes shut. 

If I stayed quiet and very still, time would continue on an endless loop. This moment could stay, neither moving forwards or backwards, and that way Scott wouldn’t have to leave. If I ignored it, it wouldn’t happen. 

But the world went on whether I was ready for it to or not. The seconds still ticked by and every single one was counting down, giving me less time with all the people I loved in the same room. 

 _No one’s dying, Liam_ , I told myself. But it didn’t seem to work. 

The tears were wiped again and again by two different pairs of hands, hands belonging to Scott and hands belonging to Theo. No matter how much water escaped, the damn shit still kept coming. I should’ve been run dry. 

My nose blocked up and my eyes grew tired, my throat dry and my head starting to throb with the stress. 

Theo stroked over my temples with all the gentleness in the world, cradling me close and waiting me out until I was ready. 

When I finally opened my eyes and blinked the tears away, Scott was there beside him, on the arm of the sofa with his jacket on and his keys twirling in his fingers. He looked ready to take on the world. 

I sniffled, digging my fingers into Theo for support. 

“I’ll miss you.” 

My alpha’s eyes turned even sadder, his whole soul wanting to stay but knowing he couldn’t. Not just for me. 

“I’ll miss you too, Li.” He reached a hand out to hold my chin, ran a thumb under my lip. “Hey, two weeks. In just over two weeks I’ll be home again.” 

I bit down on my lip to stop it from trembling. Theo shook me encouragingly in his arms. 

“You’ll get to see him, Li. You know that.” 

I nodded, hating every second I spent aching over this. I’d never had such a hard time saying goodbye. 

Maybe it was because Scott and I had never been this close. Scott,  _Theo_  and I had never been this close. 

Scott stood from the arm of the sofa to sink down into the cushion right beside me, holding his arms out and waiting for Theo to transfer me to him like I was a bundled up baby. My mate gave me a little nudge and my arms slowly let go of his neck, my body turning and latching onto Scott’s as he pulled me into his own lap. 

And he cradled me like Theo had, held me close and let me bury my face into his throat. He knew he had to leave, but he was putting our bond first. He stayed with me, didn’t try to cheer me up or rush our goodbye. He just held me like a big brother held his younger brother, tried to put as much of his own warmth into me as he could, as though it could tide me over until he came home again. 

And after a few minutes, the smell of him deep in my lungs started to work. The last few tears fell and then the water stopped coming. My heart eased a little from its pain and the thick cloud of emotion in my head started to slowly clear up. 

I sniffled and took a deep breath, tilting my head back to find Scott’s face. I ignored the crowd of the pack around the back of the sofa watching us, just focused on him. 

He looked right back down at me, waited for my mouth to open. 

“I’m sorry.” I managed not to sound too nasally through the slowly unblocking nose. I shook my head at myself. “I’m... the hormones... they’re  _ridiculous_.” 

He smiled and laughed gently at me, reaching up to push the hair back from my face. 

“You can’t hate yourself for having a huge heart, Liam.” He cooed softly. “You care. You’ve always cared. Being pregnant has just... brought it all out of you.” 

I let the sentences sink in, let them settle as the truth in my mind and my bones. Promised myself for Scott that I wouldn’t hate my own heart. 

I swallowed and let my fingers follow the collar of his jacket down the lapels to the zip. 

I looked up at him hopefully. 

“Two weeks?” 

He smiled a little more and nodded. 

“Two weeks. I promise.” 

I took a deep breath, closing my eyes and forcing the emotions in my chest to settle before opening them again. 

I nodded.   
“I’ll walk you out.” 

The look he gave me was one of pride, one that clearly said,  _I’m proud of you_. 

It gave me the strength I needed to let him go, not to cry when his arms loosened and he allowed me to get to my feet. 

Theo was right there, pulling me backwards into his chest and crossing his arms over me to give me something to hide behind, something to curl my hands around and lean back into. He walked with me, guiding us as Scott led us through the pack members and out the Stilinskis’ front door. 

The stars were out and the porch light was on, and Derek and Stiles stood waiting by the Honda Civic with Melissa, Chris and Noah as we walked down the footpath. 

Scott leant down through the window to start the engine, letting it turn over and burst into a hum in the cold, quiet street around us. 

The headlights created icy blue rays on the asphalt ahead. 

My hands gripped onto Theo’s wrists for comfort as Scott said final goodbyes to his Mom and Chris, shaking Noah’s hand and giving warm hugs to Derek and Stiles. I heard him reminding his best friend to text him as soon as he got his blood results back. They let him go with two more hugs and  _see you soon_  smiles. 

He stopped to pull Lydia into another hug, and then Malia. He murmured something gentle into her hair and left a kiss over her brow before finally heading over to us with an _I’ll miss you_ to her over his shoulder. 

He put a hand to Theo’s shoulder and one arm came away from my chest so he could wrap it around Scott. He hugged our alpha in front of the pack without a care, and it spoke volumes to me, to how much he actually respected Scott. The alpha had become someone he was close to. 

“You take care of him.” He murmured into Theo’s shoulder softly. “ _Please_ , take care of him.” 

I felt the confident nod. 

“Always. I promise.” 

They broke apart and Scott put his arms out, closing his hands around my shoulders and prying me out from under Theo’s protection to fold me in against his chest. I wrapped my arms around him and settled my head upon his shoulder, closing my eyes and breathing in as deep as I could without the frozen winter air burning my nostrils.  

There was a squirm in my belly against Scott’s, the boys’ way of telling him that they felt what was happening, and he laughed as he felt it. 

“Don’t worry,” He said loud enough for them to hear. A hand drew down my back to rub at the small of it. “I’ll miss you guys, too.” 

Despite the glum mood I was in, the corners of my lips tilted up in a smile as the babies squirmed one last time in response. They recognised Scott’s voice. 

“They’re beautiful.” He whispered into my shoulder. “I want you to tell me about everything that happens when I’m gone, remember? We’ll text every day.” 

I nodded against his chest, sniffling back more tears but pretending it was from the cold. 

“I will. Promise.” 

“Good.” 

His hands rubbed the length of my spine again, once and then twice before he leant back. 

He took my face in his palms, wiping gently at the tears under my lashes before pushing my hair back and holding my head, pressing his lips between my brows for seven long, warm seconds. 

When the kiss ended I felt it hot and comforting, running all the way into my veins and down to my toes. His power hummed through me and he used it to soothe the ache he knew was in my chest. 

My hair was tucked behind my ears. 

“I’ll see you really soon, okay? Two weeks.” 

I nodded as he stepped away, tucking my hands into my sleeves and backing up until I was back against Theo’s chest. 

“See you soon.” 

He looked back up to Theo before giving me one more little nod, his eyes flashing red for me before the words left his lips in a barely-there whisper, just for us. 

“I love you.” 

It was like I felt it when the words reached us across the footpath. It was like a warmth crashing into my chest, burrowing under my skin and settling around my heart in such a way that I closed my eyes. Tipping my head back against Theo, more tears ran from between my lashes, and I heard as Scott opened the door to his car and lowered into the driver’s seat. 

I squeezed my mate’s arms upon my chest. 

_Theo. He’s leaving._

He rubbed at the top of my belly, lowering a kiss to my throat. 

“Open your eyes. Watch him go, baby.” 

So I did.

I opened them, watched as all Scott’s family and friends waved to him. Watched him wave back. Watched him send one last smile out to us, and then he was shifting into gear, pulling away from the curb and heading north. 

We stood as his pack, as his family, in a group together on the road in his wake, the red flare of his taillights illuminating our faces in the night. 

The indicator flashed on at the end of the street, and then the vehicle hesitated. I squeezed Theo’s fingers and counted. One, two, three, four, five- 

Then Scott turned the corner. And in another mere second, he was gone. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that was worth the wait! 
> 
> I just want to say a really fucking big thank you to six incredible humans: Alexis, Bella, Sofia, Anamarija, Cristina and Corinne. You girls are honestly the sole reason I managed to push through and get this chapter done. You've been so beautiful and supportive and I couldn't have done it without you - thank you <3


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